Axel Brunger wins the DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences

AXEL BRUNGER, professor of molecular and cellular physiology, of neurology and neurological sciences, of photon science and, by courtesy, of structural biology, has been named the winner of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s inaugural DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences.

Brunger will deliver his award lecture, “Toward Structural Biology with Single Molecules” tomorrow, Wednesday, April 13, at the Experimental Biology 2011 conference in Washington, D.C.

The award, given for the first time this year, honors those who “create accessible and innovative development or applications of computer technology to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular level,” according to a press release issued by the society.

“Axel was the principal designer of CNS, which for over a decade, has been the standard refinement program used by the structural [biology] community,” according to nominator James Well of UCSF.

The award honors the late Warren L. DeLano, a scientist and entrepreneur who promoted open-source technology and believed in making his programs and source code freely available to users and enabling researchers to build on his developments. Wells credits Brunger for being a mentor to DeLano.

See the society’s press release for more information.