Molecular Surfaces
Ron Poet
I have a fairly large program, the Biochemist's Workbench, which lets Biochemists study protein molecules by displaying several different visualisations of molecules, which emphasize internal structure, chemical features and the like. I would like to add a visualisation that shows a protein as a solid object.

There are several well known techniques. The one I would like to use calculates the surface by rolling a small ball over the atoms in the protein, which produces a surface made out of spherical patches and toruses. These can either be rendered as they are, or converted to triangles before rendering.

The software features:

• Computer graphics, using the Glasgow Graphics library, written in C++, running on UNIX machines. You do not need to have any computer graphics expertise for this project, since the computer graphics is straightforward.
• The protein structures can be obtained from the Brookehaven protein databank via FTP. I have software that automatically reads in a Brookhaven file and generates the appropriate C++ objects.
• You will need a certain amount of mathematical expertise, at the level of vectors, matrixes and coordinate geometry.

I have been working with colleagues in Biochemistry for 10 years on related projects. Our group will have a research student and a visiting academic (a former PhD student of mine) working on related projects over the spring and summer.

Training will be provided in the use of the library graphics classes.

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