What We Do

We provide structural biology laboratories with a tested and refined software infrastructure that includes a large library of scientific applications.

Built-to-run software and advanced training

SBGrid Consortium members access a complete execution environment that includes a suite of of structural biology applications preconfigured to run without any additional settings. Applications are invoked from the shell prompt; there is no need to set up additional variables, change your path environment, or install supporting applications. Members find savings in time, money, and the frustration associated with managing software licensing, updates, conflicts, and bug fixes.

The Consortium team installs and maintains a comprehensive collection of these 580+ structural biology applications on Linux and macOS computers. These applications are remotely curated with updates made available each month and recompiled versions pushed out for newer releases of supported operating systems. Consortium members can self-manage access to individual applications on their personal Mac or Linux workstations using a modular SBGrid installation manager powered by our new capsules environment, which also ensures consistent operation across various platforms without requiring system administration access. A few commercial applications are also supported, including Geneious for cloning and bioinformatics, incentive builds for PyMOL, and for North American labs, the Schrodinger Small-Molecule Drug Discovery Suite.

We add new titles and provide first-level technical support in response to your software requests and bug reports. Our team reports member feedback to developers, recommending new features and describing bugs encountered, and also work closely with many developers to beta test new software versions.

Training

The monthly live webinars that we host feature contributing developers demonstrating their software and highlighting recent improvements. These tutorials offer members the opportunity to ask the developer questions directly relevant to their research. The SBGrid webinar collection is available on our website and published on the SBGridTV YouTube channel. Through occasional hands-on workshops and local computing schools, we also offer more intensive training opportunities to members.

Primary Publications

You can find out more about ongoing and completed activities and projects related to SBGrid by reading these publications:

Andrew Morin, Ben Eisenbraun, Jason Key, Paul C Sanschagrin, Michael A Timony, Michelle Ottaviano, Piotr Sliz. Cutting edge: Collaboration gets the most out of software. Read more in eLife
Carol Herre et al. Introduction of the Capsules environment to support further growth of the SBGrid structural biology software collection (2024). Read more in Acta Cryst D

Partner with Developers

Our team reports member feedback to developers to help identify bugs and promote features, and works closely with many developers to beta test new software versions. We recompile and install popular applications on new operating systems when developers can no longer provide support and provide guidance on software licensing to streamline the licensing process for our members. Our monthly webinars and occasional workshops also support developer training initiatives.

Developers, please see our Deploy Your Software page for more information on our developer program.

Membership

The SBGrid Consortium is a non-profit, NIH-compliant Service Center that operates out of Harvard Medical School. We view the Consortium as a user-supported and user-directed community resource and rely on annual membership fees to support our community operation. Please visit our Join Us page to request a membership packet and a detailed quote.

Your Responsibilities

The SBGrid Software Suite contains 580+ scientific software applications for Linux and Mac and a modular installation manager powered by our new capsules environment, with a graphical user interface for Mac or command line versions for Mac and Linux. To fully benefit from the built-to-run software environment, member laboratories must maintain an adequate computing infrastructure. Regular updates to your operating system (at least once every few years!) are essential for both Linux and Mac computers. We encourage users to report software problems and request new software titles using the Support Form. Please don’t forget to cite the software tools that you rely on for your research, including our eLife and the Acta Crystallographica Section D papers.

What We Do SBGrid