How to use Amazon Cloud supercomputers to view molecules in remarkable detail

Salk Institute for Biological Studies researchers have shared a how-to secret for biologists: code for Amazon Cloud that significantly reduces the time necessary to process data-intensive microscopic images.

The method promises to speed research into the underlying causes of disease by making single-molecule microscopy of practical use for more laboratories.

“This is an extremely cost-effective way for labs to process super-resolution images,” says Hu Cang, Salk assistant professor in the Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center and coauthor of the paper. “Depending on the size of the data set, it can save over a week’s worth of time.”