Integration of distributed computing into the drug discovery process

Grid computing offers an opportunity to gain massive computing power at low costs. We give a short introduction into the drug discovery process and exemplify the use of grid computing for image processing, docking and 3D pharmacophore descriptor calculations. The principle of a grid and its architecture are briefly explained. More emphasis is laid on the issues related to a company-wide grid installation and embedding the grid into the research process. The future of grid computing in drug discovery is discussed in the expert opinion section. Most needed, besides reliable algorithms to predict compound properties, is embedding the grid seamlessly into the discovery process. User friendly access to powerful algorithms without any restrictions, that is, by a limited number of licenses, has to be the goal of grid computing in drug discovery.