SBIR-STTR Award

Macromolecular structure determination using electron microscopy has become a useful research tool aimed at understanding biological processes, identifying conformational changes, and characterizing components in cellular pathways. Our long-term goal is to broaden the group of people able to determine macromolecular structures by providing integrated, easy to use, and efficient software for routine determination of three-dimensional macromolecular structures using electron microscopy. Novel aspects of this software include an expert system to guide users through the reconstruction process, multiple efficiently coded algorithms, and integrated data analysis and visualization tools. In addition, by incorporating this software into Tumbleweed, our software site for electron microscopy data processing, we will provide a consistent, easy to use graphical user interface; data analysis, data management, and data logging tools; and the availability of additional structure determination methods provided by Tumbleweed. The result of this Phase I SBIR will be a design specification for this integrated software package allowing easy, efficient, and routine determination of macromolecular structures by biomedical research scientists and structural biologists. Furthermore, one aspect of the reconstruction procedure will be targeted for development as a prototype to demonstrate project feasibility. The complete suite will be implemented and tested in a Phase II SBIR. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Single Particle umbleweed targets users with varied knowledge, experience, and research goals. Biochemists and cell and molecular biologists will be attracted to the user guidance and ease of use that will allow them to perform their own structural studies. Structural biologists will be attracted to a complete integrated software package that allows all aspects of single particle reconstruction and analysis to be performed in a single extendible package. Combined these groups will provide a large user-base allowing OED Labs to sucessfully commercialize Single Particle Tumbleweed

Thesaurus Terms:
cell component structure /function, computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, macromolecule, molecular dynamics, protein structure, structural biology computer human interaction, conformation, data management

Macromolecular structure determination using electron microscopy has become a useful research tool aimed at understanding biological processes, identifying conformational changes, and characterizing components in cellular pathways. Our long-term goal is to broaden the group of people able to determine macromolecular structures by providing integrated, easy to use, and efficient software for routine determination of three-dimensional macromolecular structures using electron microscopy. To accomplish these goals, we will develop an add-on package, Single Particle Tumbleweed, to our existing Tumbleweed electron microscopy software suite. Novel aspects of this software include a system to guide users through the reconstruction process, multiple efficiently coded algorithms for macromolecular structure determination, and integrated data analysis and visualization tools. The software will provide a consistent, easy to use graphical user interface; data management, analysis, and logging tools; and extensive user help including tutorials. During this development work we will also enhance Tumbleweed with additional structural analysis capabilities, increased I/O performance, more robust data management, and the ability to run on commodity hardware. The result of this Phase II SBIR will be a complete design and implementation of this software package allowing easy, efficient, and routine determination of macromolecular structures by biomedical research scientists and structural biologists.

Thesaurus Terms:
cell component structure /function, computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, electron microscopy, macromolecule, molecular dynamics, protein structure, structural biology, three dimensional imaging /topography computer human interaction, conformation, data management bioimaging /biomedical imaging