Creating new medicines with supercomputers
Date: 09 August 2011; Head: Science; Author: Petya Minkova, The 168 Hours
It is hardly to believe, but on Brussels’ order our Scientists are already in search of new
medicines with the help of one of the most powerful computers in the world. Finding the
suitable substance to fight the disease has been dramatically reduced with the
supercomputer.
Creating new medicines for the incurable and lethal diseases on a molecular and cellular
level is a long and expensive process. The time for search, synthesis and clinical tests
takes between 12 and 15 years. Expenses vary from US$ 600 to 800 million, as practice
so far shows. The result being, that medicine prices are constantly rising which becomes
a dead-weight for the health insurance funds in the EU.
There is no need to check experimentally each of the several million chemical
compounds or biomolecules whether or not they are going to hit the target, chosen by
physicians and pharmacists.
100 – 200 medicine applicants may be filtered out
with the help of supercomputers and a suitable software.
The software helps to evaluate side effects and toxicity of future medicines.
INCREDIBLE: Our supercomputer is among the most powerful ones worldwide.
The millions of test-tube experiments are the reason that anticancer and some other
molecular medicine drugs cost several thousand dollars, because highly professional
staff has been conducting expensive tests for years until the exact combination is found.
With the help of supercomputers the time for discovering a new medicine will be reduced
three times and the incorporated funds will be reduced twice. This has been established
out of the giant pharmaceutical companies’ practice, which have first taken advantage of
supercomputers. Therefore the EU member-states invest in similar machines and unite,
in order to speed up the work on the various models and software. In Jülich, Germany is
the so called centre, where the partner-states in the European program have united both
means and efforts for developments in the field of industry, biotechnologies, health care,
etc. ‘It would take you months and years if you try to compute on a PC whether the
target will bond to the medicine applicant. The supercomputer in Jülich, Germany
may solve this problem
for a couple of minutes’, Stoyan Markov, Head of the National Centre for Supercomputer
Applications said before The 168 Hours. Ten minutes of computations on this computer
are equal to 13 years on an ordinary laptop.
Reduction of energy losses of Électricité de France
With the help of our supercomputer our scientists have been working under a project of
the French giant Électricité de France for reducing energy losses. Thus the production of
electric energy is optimized,
the atomic reactors cooling is designed
and the electric energy distribution is managed at minimum losses.
“There are stations which burn low calorie coals, where harmful gases emissions should
be minimal, ensuring meanwhile optimum operation of the power generating units. If the
computer is weak, and the software is bad, instead of obtaining real-time results, they
will come in 10-15 minutes which makes the process management pointless”, Stoyan
Markov said.
Électricité de France has already provided us the programs.
‘They use the same supercomputer type and we have installed Électricité de France’s
software’, Markov explained. The following step will be to optimize jointly with them the
operation of any Bulgarian power station. According to Markov, this software may be
used to optimize the thermal processes in cement industry as well.
‘If we reduce the consumption of fuel with 2-3%, and the harmful emissions as well, this
could bring them a solid profit’, he said.
‘It is not necessary to make the vehicle and to start examining what stroke its structure
may sustain. This can be calculated on a computer”, Stoyan Markov explained.
Therefore the EU countries have united to create machines with an effectiveness of
billion operations per second. They are intended for projects related to climatic changes,
biotechnologies, life extension and lifestyle improvement, physics, etc.
PETYA MINKOVA
Our scientists are paid from 3,000 to 5,000 levs per month
‘We are in this program, we work with Bulgarian universities and institutes within the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where for the good specialists’ work a European
remuneration could be paid, which amounts from BGN 3,000 to 5,000 per month’,
Stoyan Markov said. According to him each Bulgarian company may use the
supercomputer centre. Software suitable for it could also be found.
‘The state has decided that the supercomputer is at everyone’s disposal and the
software is free. This is its support to the business’, Markov said. The chief of the
European PRACE program, which unifies the countries with supercomputers under the
direction of the EU, Prof. Thomas Lippert states that Bulgarian supercomputer ranks
among the first ten in the world by the software offered. Moreover, the state has to its
credit the first euro funds gained through its supercomputer, bought two years ago.
Lippert is the chief of the Research Complex in Jülich, Germany, where the partnermembers in the European program have joined funds and efforts to make developments
in the field of industry, biotechnology, health care, etc.
Prof. Lippert stated before The 168 Hours that supercomputers with a vast computing
power are the key to European science development. To his opinion the computing
power of supercomputers in the USA is five times that of the EU, which explains US fast
economic and scientific progress.
The European Commission has set aside EUR 70 million to finance 4 projects for the
creation of methods, models and software. Bulgaria already participates in the first
projects and is preparing for its participation in the second project. The total amount of
both projects financing amounts to EUR 44 million. We are going to get 1.4 million of
them. Against this funding our specialist are working under European projects in three
directions – search of new medicines, new materials and reduction of losses in power
engineering. Besides these funds, the Bulgarian Centre for Supercomputing Applications
has been awarded two competitions from the Scientific Researches Fund for more than
BGN 3 million.
Interview
Thomas Lippert, Director of the Supercomputer Centre in Jülich, Germany:
You will be far ahead in 5 – 10 years.
- Mr. Lippert, what is the practical importance of supercomputers for Bulgaria?
- The European Union has been committed to supercomputers. Bulgaria is part of this
process, it is a partner in the program, and it becomes competitive owing to what is to
the benefit of the entire EU. The great computing power tools are of utmost importance
for the European science and I even think they could be the key to its future
development.
If you develop technologies and software today, you will be far ahead in 5 – 20 years,
and will be much more competitive. These are key technologies and innovations, which
are extremely important for the future and for climatic changes as well. Supercomputers
help in the creation of new materials, for the development of biology, mathematics,
industry; all of them are of each economy’s favor.
It takes some time, of course, before seeing benefits, but if you do not do this, it would
not be good for you, you will fall behind. You will lose time from your technological
progress. If you participate in the process you can help your industry. Industry usually
selects machines which are many times weaker than the largest installations. These
cannot be created in the EU without the relevant programs and initiatives. It is obvious
that without supercomputers our scientists will not have access to such a technique, and
Europe will fall behind in its development.
This also is one of the goals of PRACE – one of the largest research infrastructures in
Europe, financed and managed by the EU and defined by the European Strategic Forum
for Research Infrastructures. The European scientists’ purpose is to have access to the
powerful scientific tools.
- What do you think of our scientists?
- They have gained recognition as a whole all over the world, and, besides, you have a
supercomputer. Bulgaria contributes for the common benefit of the EU, it is funded
under projects for technologies, and it uses machines for scientific and industrial
purposes.