Pharming of microRNA (mRNA): in collaboration with the Department of Pathology at the University of Glasgow, the NeSC at Glasgow developed a collection of tools to support the processing of large scale, high throughput microRNA data sets (typically tens of millions of short sequences of known and unknown origins). These data sets included cancerous data samples that have been treated over particular time windows. Through monitoring the changes in abundance of these sequences in specific time windows, the project showed that targeting of the effectiveness of drugs could be better understood and new genetic information gleaned, i.e. new genes that may be responsible for the changes in microRNA abundance.

Drug Discovery Portal (DDP): the DDP project involved a collaboration with the pharmaceutical group at the University of Strathclyde that focused on the development of a drug discovery portal supporting a molecular modeling laboratory using quantum chemical and thermodynamic based approaches to drug design. This portal dramatically sped up computational problems of pharmaceutical relevance utilizing a virtual foot-printing technique designed to identify agents that target specific gene sequences through software that explores the fundamental role of water structure in ligand binding. New DNA targeting agents were developed by combining novel analytical methods for assessment of DNA binding with synthetic chemistry, NMR studies and molecular modeling. Computer-aided drug design was also employed in the rational design of small molecules aimed at characterising ligand-protein interactions. The work also incorporated the manipulation of EGFR crystal structure, rational drug design, synthetic chemistry and in collaboration with cell biology groups, examination of synthesised ligands in biologically relevant cell-based assays.