SMU ChemGen for Drug Discovery

An example of rigorous prep  work that must be done consistently well. 

SMU's ChemGen Completes Essential Drug Discovery Work in Days

Southern Methodist University,  April 14, 2021

Southern Methodist University (SMU) researchers have developed ChemGen, a set of computer-driven routines that emulate chemical reactions in a laboratory, significantly reducing the time and costs of drug discovery. ChemGen accelerates pharmacological optimization from months to days, using high-performance computers like SMU's ManeFrame II shared high-performance computing cluster. The tool computationally generates molecular variants of the original chemical key, mimicking reactions under various combinations of circumstances. SMU's John Wise said, "A research group or pharmaceutical company need only actually synthesize the molecules with the best chances of being improved, leaving the thousands of unimproved molecules in the computer and not on the lab bench."  ... " 

Ransomware Solution

Quickly detects unauthorized encryption.

Software Developed by SMU Stops Ransomware Attacks
Southern Methodist University
May 13, 2020

Engineers at Southern Methodist University (SMU)'s Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity have developed software that identifies ransomware attacks before attackers can cause catastrophic damage, even if the ransomware is new and has not been previously used. This sensor-based ransomware detection does not rely on data from past ransomware infections to detect new ones on a computer. The software searches for small but distinguishable power surges in certain sensors within computers, in order to detect unauthorized encryptions. The software then alerts the computer to suspend or terminate the infection before the encryption can be completed. SMU's Mike Taylor said the software can scan computers in a fraction of the time that existing software can, identifying malware before extensive damage occurs.  ... "