Life Member Meeting June 5, 2024
A OEB-LM Live Meeting was held In Livermore, CA at Beeb’s Restaurant and attended by over a dozen IEEE Life Members. After an enjoyable lunch, which gave those attending a chance to socialize with other Members we were treated to an outstanding presentation and interactive hands-on session by:
Thomas Ferrin, Professor Emeritus
Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization and Informatics
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Ferrin has spent his entire career developing interactive graphic techniques and design software for visualizing 3D molecular models. His lab’s expertise was used during early Covid-19 research to help identify the “spikes” in the Covid virus that made Covid so dangerous to humans. His presentation covered the following:
The Role of Interactive Graphics in Drug and Vaccine Design
Interactive computer graphics has been used for more than 60 years to visualize and analyze 3-D molecular structures, such as DNA and proteins, and has contributed to the development of many drugs and, more recently, vaccines that are in common use today. Today, VR headsets enable structural biologists to immerse themselves within these molecules in order to gain a better understanding of how they function. This talk will recount the evolution of interactive molecular graphics from the early days of calligraphic CRT displays to the current use of VR headsets such as the one shown here.
After the presentation, two VR headsets were made available to attendees to experience what it is like to interact with molecules using the software developed at his lab at UCSF. It was a great experience, and eye opening for those who hadn’t experienced that before.
Dr. Ferrin has made his presentation available as a PDF file that may be downloaded from this link.
