Info
SBGrid is a member-supported research computing consortium based at Harvard Medical School. Founded 2000 by Piotr Sliz. Distributes 580+ structural biology software applications (X-ray, cryo-EM, NMR, tomography, computational chemistry, visualization) to 500+ labs at 180+ institutions across 23 countries. Software is pre-configured, zero-setup, auto-updated. Also operates SBGrid Data Bank (open data repository for diffraction datasets) and SBCloud (AWS-based cryo-EM cloud computing).
How SBGrid actually reaches users
People
| Name | Role | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Piotr Sliz | Founder / Director | Harvard Medical School / Boston Children’s Hospital |
| Jason Key | Software curator / release engineer | Harvard Medical School |
| Pete Meyer | Senior Structural Biology Computing Scientist | Harvard Medical School |
| Kurt Krause | Australasian Director; Advisory Board | University of Otago, New Zealand |
| Jamaine Davis | Faculty co-lead (education) | Belmont University |
Funding
- Member lab annual fees (primary, self-sustaining model)
- NIH R25 GM151273
- NSF RCN 0639193
- NSF EAGER 1448069
- Helmsley Charitable Trust
- AWS (SBCloud partnership)
Key Relationships
- Partnership with Instruct-ERIC (announced on SBGrid site)
- Partnership with AWS for SBCloud cryo-EM cloud computing
- Distributes CCP4, PHENIX, RELION, cryoSPARC, Coot, ChimeraX, DIALS, EMAN2, CTFFIND, NMRPipe, and hundreds more
- SBGrid Data Bank holds ~1,000 X-ray diffraction datasets
- Monthly webinars feature developers from across the landscape (e.g., DIALS Graeme Winter)
- Piotr Sliz is at Harvard Medical School, same institution as Hari Arthanari (wwPDB Advisory Committee BMRB co-chair)
- Open Science Grid integration (~5M CPU hours/year)
DiffUSE relevance
SBGrid’s model of community-funded software distribution and its SBCloud platform are relevant to DiffUSE’s compute infrastructure planning. SBGrid is also based in Boston, same area as Andy.
Key Reference
Morin et al., eLife 2, e01456 (2013) Herre et al., Acta Cryst D80 (2024)