CyberCell awarded $4.7m from Alberta Government

High-tech research into experimental treatments

Neco Cockburn, Journal Staff Writer, Edmonton Journal

…Project CyberCell, a collaborative effort involving the universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge, was given $4.7 million to build a cell on a computer.

“When complete, the cell will be useful in a number of ways,” said Joel Weiner, the project’s scientific director.

“We could propose how a drug will act or how a cell will function in a particular environment,” he said, adding researchers will be able to determine the effects mutations have on a cell.

Weiner said CyberCell researchers are currently collecting data. And, over the next few years, they will attempt to complete the first step of the project, computer modelling E. Coli bacteria cell.

Weiner said the project will provide a number of high-tech jobs and attract graduate students to the university, which he considers a world leader in the biology field. “There are a number of projects in different countries, and we’re clearly in front,” he said, estimating it will be about 10 years before a human cell is replicated in the computer.

“All we have is a parts list, and we have no idea how the parts go together. It’s like getting an IKEA kit without the schematic, and you have a whole bunch of different parts sitting in front of you,” he said.

We’re trying to figure out from the parts how to put this thing together, and build it bit by bit until we have a cell.”