HHS Secretary Thompson Visit
US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson came to our facility for a brief visit on October 20, 2001 and we gave him a couple of demos:
- How The Genome Controls Itself (Presenter: Alexander Balaeff)
- Putting Your Hands On A Protein (Presenters: Paul Grayson, Emad Tajkhorshid)
The presentations showed how cutting edge science and computational technologies lead to great biomedical benefits. Using VMD - our molecular visualization program, and NAMD - our molecular modeling program running on parallel computers, we showcased our research on multi-scale modeling of DNA-protein complexes (lac repressor), as well as on membrane channels (aquaporins).
We demonstrated how researchers, combining NAMD and VMD via a virtual reality device and running interactive molecular dynamics, manipulate the systems they study and interact with them in real time. Such investigations of biological systems are possible due to the availability of powerful computers and our efficient software to exploit them.
Despite his tight schedule, Secretary Thompson took the opportunity to operate the virtual reality device and to interact with the biological system on the screen.
As always, this fine presentation reflected the team effort of all Resource members. The photographs were taken by Jim.
