# Transmembrane signaling mechanisms of plexin - Supplement

> **NIH NIH R35** · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $64,475

## Abstract

This application is to request fund for purchasing of a high-end computation and data storage
system for the cryo-electron microscopic (cryo-EM) work under the parent project that is focused
on cryo-EM structural and mechanistic analyses of the transmembrane receptor plexin. In the
past few years, the parent project has generated a number of high-impact cryo-EM structures of
plexin and related transmembrane receptors, which substantially advanced the understanding
of their signaling mechanisms. During this period, the infrastructure for computation and data
storage have become a major bottleneck. The throughput of cryo-EM data collection has been
increasing at a very fast rate, leading to vast amounts of data that enable the determination of
high-resolution structures of proteins that was previously not possible. Accordingly, fast
computers are required for processing these data and take advantage of new methods that are
improving on a daily basis but also more resource demanding. Large storage servers are needed
for secure storage and easy access of the data. The lab has been relying on a single workstation
with a 12-TB hard-disk. With the data collection rate at ~2 TB per day and ~5 TB per trial of a
protein, the available disk space is severely limiting the progress of the project. The calculation
of each structure on the GPU workstation takes days or weeks for difficult cases, which leads to
delays as datasets waiting in the queue. In addition, the current GPUs have 12 GB memory,
limiting the size of the protein complex structures that could be processed. This proposal
therefore requests for fund to purchase a computational system built for cryo-EM, with 16 GPUs
with 48 GB memory and 1 PB RAID hard-disk unit. This is an invest that will greatly benefit the
parent project and the research field for years to come.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10386725
- **Project number:** 3R35GM130289-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Xuewu Zhang
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $64,475
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-01-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10386725

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10386725, Transmembrane signaling mechanisms of plexin - Supplement (3R35GM130289-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10386725. Licensed CC0.

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