We are thrilled to share that Ranran French, MD, PhD, a third-year psychiatry resident in the UNC Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP), and her research partner Ryan Gumpper, PhD, an Assistant Professor at Eshelman School of Pharmacy, have been awarded compute time on the Anton 3 supercomputer — an award valued at approximately $1 million.Anton 3, developed by D.E. Shaw Research, is among the world’s most powerful instruments for molecular dynamics simulation, capable of modeling biological systems at timescales and resolutions unreachable by conventional computing infrastructure.
Dr. French and Dr. Gumpper will use this extraordinary resource to investigate how known genetic variants of the dopamine D2 receptor and serotonin 5-HT2A receptor — two of the primary targets of antipsychotic medications — alter the binding dynamics of these drugs at the molecular level. Their work aims to understand why patients with certain genetic profiles respond differently to antipsychotic treatment, laying the groundwork for a new generation of precision psychiatry tools that could guide individualized medication selection for patients with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.
“The hope is that by understanding how specific receptor variants change the way a drug binds, we can begin to match patients to the medications most likely to work for them,” said Dr. French. “For patients with treatment-resistant illness, that kind of precision could be transformative.”
This research builds on Dr. French and Dr Gumpper’s broader program of work, which profiles the pharmacological signatures of antipsychotic drugs across a range of clinically relevant receptor variants using high-throughput functional assays. The Anton 3 simulations will provide the structural and dynamic data needed to interpret those profiles at the atomic level.
Please join us in congratulating Ranran and Ryan on this remarkable achievement and in wishing them every success as they push the frontier of precision psychiatry forward.