Achievement

One of our group research teams, David Jenkins (Computer Science in HPC), Ben Goodrich (Computer Science in Machine Learning), Jason Harris (Genome Science and Biophysics), created the STatistical Analysis of Aromatic Ring Structures (STAARS) software package. STAARS is designed to search the entirety of the NCBI Protein Database for protein structural information that reveals the importance of ion-aromatic ring interactions in protein conformation. The software is intended to improve predictive modeling of protein-protein interactions.

The project began the year before last when Jason Harris recruited a team (including three faculty) to move the current ion-quadrupole research from desktops to a cluster. David Jenkins was on that team and he took the lead role last year to develop and implement the new software. Jason Harris assembled a new team this year to apply the software to new research projects. David graduated and has taken a job with the federal government.