Award details

Commercialisation of VR for biomolecular design

Reference	BB/T017066/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Adrian Mulholland
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr David Ryan Glowacki
Institution	University of Bristol
Department	Chemistry
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	193,776
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/10/2020
End date	31/12/2021
Duration	15 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

A market opportunity exists to build upon the outputs of successful BBSRC-funded research, which has developed tools for interactive molecular simulation, visualisation, manipulation and building in virtual reality (VR). This technology has the opportunity to transform commercially important areas such as structure-based drug design, molecular synthetic biology and protein engineering for practical applications. We are seeking 18 months of funding to support the initial stages of commercialisation activities to construct a spin-out company that sells a set of ready-to-market technologies that allow scientists within the biomolecular industry to transform their research pipelines. Our software, Narupa, is a suite of VR-enabled software packages for molecular modelling and design. Narupa allows scientists to step into the molecular world to simulate, manipulate and build biomolecular systems. Our core software offering, Narupa iMD-VR, uniquely enables scientists to not only to view molecular systems but to also interact with running simulations and maniplate structures and interactions in real time. The simulations are dynamic, physically rigorous, flexible and fast, and can easily accommodate new molecular systems. It is multiuser, allowing teams to work together, proving new ways to collaborate (including virtually) on molecular design and engineering problems. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of the approach in user tests for molecular modelling tasks; it outperforms current tools. These software tools have the potential to enable industrial biomolecular research to accelerate workflows and cut costs in ways that could not be envisaged even five years ago. We intend to utilise a unique combination of cloud computing, real-time research-grade simulation engines, and virtual reality (VR) to disrupt research across several areas, including synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, catalysis, drug design, and materials research. Narupa also provides a virtual meeting place for scientists to simultaneously inhabit the same simulation and share insights and collaborate in a way never possible before, and facilitate communication between experts and non-specialists. The power of our tools and approach has been recognised by companies such as BP, Hyundai and Oracle, who have invested in research projects with us. The opportunity to couple new immersive modes of computer-human interaction with scalable computing resources offers a short window for UK companies to emerge as global leaders in established fields that are otherwise difficult to disrupt. The bio-sector's R&D activities are significant components of UK economic output and are critical to ensuring the UK's standing in the global knowledge, research, and manufacturing economy. We estimate that there is a potential 8x ROI in R&D processes by the adoption of such tools, allowing scientists to rapidly test ideas and design hypotheses. Funding from BBSRC will allow us to build on current successful industrial-academic contracts and to develop a commercial entity. The initial stages focus on outreach, comms and visiting industry partners for application scoping and demonstrating initial VR installations and business-specific uses. We will take a three-strand approach to achieve commercial success: 1) Offer fully supported VR installations for customers intending to build labs (we already have two commercial partners and over two dozen academic partner universities). 2) Dedicated consultancy for using VR for, accelerated dynamics simulations, visualisation and scientific applications. 3) Sales of cloud credits to link various existing software packages as well as a multi-user VR teleconference allowing remote scientific collaboration. By the conclusion of the funding period, we will have constructed the framework for a sustainable business, secured venture capital funding in order to scale up this company and will have built a customer base.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Structural Biology, Technology and Methods Development
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Follow-On Fund (FOF) [2004-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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