# Collaboration and Service

> **NIH NIH P41** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 2020 · $93,902

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
The Center engages in collaborative research that leverages the Center's molecular modeling software, expertise
and facilities to bridge experiment and computation. While experimental techniques unveil critical aspects of
molecular and cellular architecture, computational molecular modeling describes biomolecular systems in their
native states at the atomic level. During the last funding period, the Center completed 35 Collaboration and
Service projects with 41 joint publications on subjects such as the assembly mechanism and drug resistance of the
ribosome, neurons' synaptic receptors and solid-state DNA sequencing nanopores. Currently, the Center is engaged
in 42 ongoing collaboration projects with 56 joint publications so far. To make the Center's technological advances
driven by the collaboration projects available to the biomedical community, the Center distributes its software for
all major platforms, from laptops to supercomputers and cloud computing facilities. The Center ensures software
usability by providing user support, maintaining up-to-date documentation, tutorials, and online discussion groups.
Over the last funding period, the Center-developed molecular modeling and simulation packages VMD, NAMD,
and Lattice Microbes served a community of over 100,000 users. Technical support for the community was
provided mainly through the online discussion groups “NAMD-L”, “VMD-L” and “LatticeMicrobes-Users”, where
more than 17,000 software-related messages were submitted over the last funding periode. The Center also offers
individual consultation for special cases requiring direct personal interaction, operating directly in its laboratory
area a well-equipped Visitor Center to host visiting scholars and collaborators. 50 scholars/collaborators visited
the Center for up to six months seeking technical and scientific expertise, and 107 leading scientists presented
their work on the Center Seminar program at the host institution, the UIUC Beckman Institute. All the activities
described above were possible only through the Center's Petascale Biology Gateway Facility, which provides the
high-end computing and graphics resources required by the demanding preparation, visualization, and analysis
tasks of advanced molecular modeling. This gateway also hosts the Center's website and all associated content,
from scientific research-related material to software documentation and tutorials, as well as the online discussion
platforms.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9933029
- **Project number:** 5P41GM104601-31
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **Principal Investigator:** Klaus Schulten
- **Activity code:** P41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $93,902
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9933029

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9933029, Collaboration and Service (5P41GM104601-31). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9933029. Licensed CC0.

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