Scintillating Science – Steve McCloskey, Founder and CEO of Nanome – Nanoscale Scientific Research and The Potential for Groundbreaking Discoveries

Steve McCloskey, founder, and CEO of Nanome (nanome.ai) delivers an interesting overview of their virtual reality solutions for scientists and engineers—solutions that could potentially stimulate discovery of disease treatment and even cure. McCloskey studied nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego where his work was primarily focused on emerging technologies applied to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). While at UC San Diego, McCloskey worked with Ken Vecchio, the founding chair of the nanoengineering department, as they set the foundation for the Nanoengineering Materials Research Center. They were instrumental in the development of thermodynamic processing methods for iron-based superelastic alloys. McCloskey’s passion for the field led him to launch Nanome as a vehicle to build virtual reality solutions for scientists and engineers working at the nanoscale. Specifically, Nanome’s team spends a significant amount of time exploring protein engineering and small molecule drug development.  McCloskey’s company, Nanome, transforms our interaction with, and understanding of, science, by providing a virtual world where users can experiment, design, innovate and learn at the nanoscale. McCloskey explains that Nanome’s vision is to create an immersive interface where people can see things intuitively, and better interact with science via virtual reality and other tools. McCloskey states that their current technology allows users to view at the atom level, but he is working to develop further, to achieve success at the subatomic level. Additionally, he discusses the energy minimization force field as it relates to forces that are being calculated between atoms as they push and pull apart.  McCloskey discusses one of their top products that he is particularly excited about—CalcFlow. CalcFlow allows researchers to study and visualize vector calculus in an interactive environment. The platform enables mathematical modeling, manipulation of 3D graphs, as well as the editing of parameters while you work. He elaborates on the advantages that CalcFlow provides for research and experimentation, such as its ability to bring mechanical engineering design into the dynamic in an observable manner. And the process is exceptionally great for optimization and delivery into the 3D printing environment. The nanoengineering expert describes how the introduction of blockchain to their platform will allow more people to work globally toward solutions to many problems that humans face, from technology to medical and beyond. McCloskey details how the platform can provide an opportunity for a larger group of people to study and hopefully find solutions for tropical diseases, diseases that big pharmaceutical companies have no interest in, due to the fact that their ability to profit is lower. Through the use of open-source models and automated licensing, and even closed source, the use of blockchain truly is changing the rate of discovery, as the global community can be involved.  As the technology is expanding, McCloskey expects that virus modeling will become easier, as entire viruses can be viewed with atomic detail, enabling study at the systems level of the biology. And by simulating cells at every level, the possibilities for discovery are enormous.