VIBE - A VIRTUAL BIOMOLECULAR ENVIRONMENT FOR INTERACTIVE MOLECULAR MODELING

Virtual reality tightly coupled to high performance computing and comm unications ushers in a new era for the study of molecular recognition and the rational design of pharmaceutical compounds. We have created a Virtual Biomolecular Environment (VIBE), which consists of (1) massiv ely parallel computing to simulate the physical and chemical propertie s of a molecular system, (2) the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (C AVE) for immersive display and interaction with the molecular system, and (3) a high-speed network interface to exchange data between the si mulation and the CAVE. VIBE enables molecular scientists to have a vis ual, auditory, and haptic experience with a chemical system, while sim ultaneously manipulating its physical properties by steering, in real- time, a simulation executed on a supercomputer. We demonstrate the cha racteristics of VIBE using an HIV protease-cyclic urea inhibitor compl ex. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd