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Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
Division Limited at +44 (0)454 615554

"Fantastic Journey"
will speed development of drugs

Bristol & London, UK - 14 March 1994 - Scientists and technicians will 
use virtual reality to bring themselves down to the size of the 
molecules they are investigating in a new project aimed at improving 
our understanding of protein molecules and their interactions with 
drugs.

The stlg600,000 project, announced today by Trade and Technology 
Minister Patrick McLoughlin, will enable technicians with limited 
experience to carry out scientific analysis, while experts will be able 
to work without needing to understand the technicalities of the 
computer equipment they use.

Funded by stlg180,000 from the DTI and stlg120,000 from the Science and 
Engineering Research Council (SERC), the project for "interactive 
protein modelling systems using virtual reality" is the latest stage of 
the stlg6.35m government-funded LINK protein engineering programme, 
which is expected to attract an equivalent sum from industry.

The project, using molecules simulated in 3D images, will be 
undertaken by the University of York, Division Ltd (specialists in 
virtual reality and software) and Glaxo Research and Development 
Ltd. The aim is to develop systems using existing stereo imaging 
facilities, which can be developed subsequently to use virtual reality 
systems.  Laboratory workers will be able to use the more intuitive 
user interface of VR systems to understand the structure of 
macromolecules and how the structure relates to their function.
Early take-up of such key enabling technology by UK and European 
companies will lead to direct sales of the system, and economic 
benefits such as shorter development times for new medicines.

Under the project, three molecular modelling and manipulation 
systems will be developed:

. a system for building models of macromolecules that satisfy "low 
resolution" experimental and other constraints;

. a protein visualisation system for natural and effective 
representation and analysis of protein structure; and,

. a system for exploring similarities between molecules, in terms of 
both structure and function.

The key characteristics of these systems are interactive visualisation 
of structure and properties of molecules, and manipulation of 
structure(s) by the user.

A pilot project has demonstrated that virtual reality offers crucial 
advantages over a conventional computer workstation in providing 
these interactive features. The applications in the project will be 
developed to operate both on conventional workstations and within a 
virtual reality system.

Notes for Editors

1.	Recent advances in molecular biology and genetic 
engineering have led to increased commercial interest in the potential 
to design proteins with enhanced or new properties and to produce 
improved drugs, hormones, industrial enzymes, agrochemicals, 
biocatalysts and food proteins. The LINK Protein Engineering 
Programme seeks to encourage collaborative R&D that will generate 
a focused research effort aimed at advancing the understanding of the 
structural properties of proteins and the ground rules which relate 
structure to biological activity.

2.	For further information, contact:
	University of York	Dr Rod Hubbard at 0904-432519
	Division Limited	Pierre duPont at 0454-615554
	Glaxo Group Research Ltd	Philip Connolly 081-966-3470

3.	Photographs are available from Pierre duPont at +44 (0)454 
615554

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email: pierre@division.demon.co.uk
Pierre duPont                           phone: +44 454 615554
Division Limited                        fax: +44 454 615532
19 Apex Court, Woodlands, Almondsbury, Bristol BS12 4JT UK