Understanding dendrimer pharmaceuticals: The application of parallel computing to the investigation of dendrimer structure and activity

树枝状大分子或星型聚合物是一类重要的新型合成材料，其物理和化学性质介于有机小分子和传统线性聚合物之间。一个令人兴奋的应用领域是基于树枝状大分子的新型药物的开发。本项目旨在使用计算机辅助分子模拟方法来研究树枝状大分子的三维结构和动态行为。这将有助于设计针对继发性癌症、哮喘和病毒性呼吸道疾病等疾病的新化合物。

Dendrimers or starburst polymers are an important new class of synthetic material with physical and chemical properties that lie between those of small organic molecules and traditional linear polymers. One exciting area of application is the development of new dendrimer-based pharmaceuticals. This project aims to use computer-aided molecular modelling methods to investigate the three dimensional structure and dynamic behaviour of dendrimers. This will assist in the design of new compounds to target diseases such as secondary cancers, asthma and viral respiratory diseases.