The Evolving ERN Cryo-EM Federated Instrument Pilot Project
Maureen Dougherty, Barr von Oehsen, Jason T. Kaelber, Jeremy Schafer, D. Balamurugan, Morgan Ludwig, John Goodhue · 2024
The Ecosystem for Research Networking (ERN) CryoEM Remote Instrument Access Pilot Project addresses the challenges and barriers facing the transition of instrument-driven science self-contained islands to federated wide-area internet accessible instruments. This project’s goal is to facilitate cross-institutional infrastructure sharing at the interface of computing and electron microscopy through a federated web portal to access scientific instruments and generate workflows utilizing edge computing paired with advanced computing and real-time monitoring for experimental parameter adjustments and decision making. The intent is to foster team science and scientific innovation, with emphasis on under-represented and under-resourced institutions, through the democratization of scientific instruments. This paper presents a short summary some of the latest challenges encountered with this active project, creating a FABRIC Cloudlet and incorporating Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 as an advanced computing option.