Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a high-performance computer cluster for computational biology

这项核磁共振成就奖将使加利福尼亚州立大学北岭分校(CSUN)获得用于计算生物学的高性能计算机集群。该奖项将支持CSUN在计算生物学、生物化学和生物物理学方面的研究发展和增长，使之能够分析比以前可能的更大的数据集和更复杂的模拟。这项研究的目的是促进我们对一系列主题的理解，包括心脏病、免疫系统功能、计算药物设计、医疗植入物、膜蛋白结构和功能，以及微生物在全球变暖中的作用。CSUN的学生中50%以上来自传统上服务不足的群体，他们将通过专门的讲习班、研究实践经验、一门新的以研究为基础的计算生物学课程以及将该专题组整合到现有课程中进行培训。此外，PI和高级人员将与计算/数据科学方面的当地高中教师合作，后者将反过来培训当地高中生。该集群具有高内存图形处理器(GPU)和中央处理器(CPU)、大内存和存储的平衡，将使目前难以解决的生命科学问题得到解决，并支持计算生物学的现有和新的研究方向。该集群的灵活设计将使PI和高级人员能够应用计算生物学中使用的广泛方法和途径来表征G蛋白偶联受体(GPCR)信号的热力学和结构动力学，创建预测蛋白质和RNA的配体和离子结合的新方法，开发将蛋白质突变与心律失常联系起来的多尺度框架，创建T细胞受体多样性如何影响免疫系统的详细模型，设计和测试治疗方法以防止医疗植入物周围的纤维组织生长，并使用DNA和RNA序列数据来确定融化永久冻土中的微生物群落如何促进气候变化。总体而言，这些项目将进一步加深应用和基础生物技术方面的知识，并为科学界提供新的软件工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This MRI award will enable the acquisition of a high-performance computer cluster for computational biology at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). The award will support the development and growth of research in computational biology, biochemistry, and biophysics at CSUN by enabling the analysis of larger datasets and more complex simulations than previously possible. The goal of this research is to advance our understanding of a diverse range of topics, including heart disease, immune system function, computational drug-design, medical implants, membrane protein structure and function, and the role of microbes in global warming. Students at CSUN, over 50% of whom are from traditionally underserved groups, will be trained through dedicated workshops, hands-on experience in research, a new research-based course in computational biology, and the integration of the cluster into existing courses. Additionally, the PIs and senior personnel will work with local high school teachers in computational/data science, who will, in turn, train local high school students.The cluster, with a balance of high memory graphics processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs), large-memory, and storage, will allow currently inaccessible problems in life sciences to be addressed and support current as well as new research directions in computational biology. The flexible design of the cluster will allow the PIs and senior personnel to apply the wide range of methods and approaches used in computational biology to characterize the thermodynamics and structural dynamics of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling, create new approaches to predict ligand and ion binding to proteins and RNA, develop a multi-scale framework to link protein mutations to cardiac arrhythmias, create detailed models of how T-cell receptor diversity affects immune system, design and test treatments to prevent fibrous tissue growth around medical implants, and use DNA and RNA sequence data to determine how microbial communities in thawing permafrost contribute to climate change. Collectively, these projects will further knowledge in applied and foundational biotechnology and provide new software tools for the scientific community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.