The opening of the $7.3-million Molecular Design and Information Technology (MDIT) Centre last month created unparalleled possibilities for drug research at U of T. The MDIT houses a sophisticated 3-D stereoscopic imaging system driven by a modern parallel-processing supercomputer for visualizing and modelling organic molecules. The facility is the largest of its kind in Canada.
The massive computing power available at the MDIT centre makes complex drug modelling possible. The centre’s 3-D imaging system allows researchers to easily manipulate drug models to test new ideas. Researchers will use the system to design new drugs, study material-drug interaction and test ideas about how drugs are delivered to the body.
“This facility has allowed us to do things that we could not have otherwise,” said Christine Allen, associate director of MDIT. New drugs can now be formulated faster and through a rational synthesis process instead of the tedious traditional method of trial and error.
“It is cutting-edge technology, and we should be using it,” said Allen. “We would be behind if we weren’t.”
The centre is open to the whole university, not just the pharmacy faculty. It already hosts projects that span several disciplines, inciting collaboration between research groups from assorted faculties and departments at the university.
