Structural biology is in the midst of a revolution. Instrumentation and software improvements have allowed for the full realization of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) as a tool capable of determining atomic structures of protein and macromolecular samples. These advances open the door to solving new structures that were previously unattainable, which will soon make cryo-EM a ubiquitous tool for structural biology worldwide, serving both academic and commercial purposes. However, despite its power, new users to cryo-EM face significant obstacles. One major barrier consists of the handling of large datasets (10+ terabytes), where new cryo-EM users must learn how to interface with the Linux command line while also dealing with managing and submitting jobs to high performance computing resources. To address this barrier, we are developing the COSMIC2 Science Gateway as an easy, web-based, science gateway to simplify cryo-EM data analysis using a standardized workflow. Specifically, we have adapted the successful and mature Cyberinfrastructure for Phylogenetic Research (CIPRES) Workbench [8] and integrated Globus Auth [6] and Globus Transfer [7] to enable federated user identity management and large dataset transfers to Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment’s (XSEDE) [1] high performance computing (HPC) systems. With the support of XSEDE’s Extended Collaborative Support Services (ECSS) [16] and the Science Gateway Community Institute’s (SGCI) Extended Developer Support (EDS), this gateway will lower the barrier to high performance computing tools and facilitate the growth of cryo-EM to become a routine tool for structural biology.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• (2024), "COSMIC2 Science Gateway," https://sciencegateways.org/resources/cosmic2sciencegateway.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. CIPRES
2. cryo-electron
3. cryo-EM
4. Globus
5. microscopy
6. SGCI Client
7. Software
8. structural biology