[3dem] SPIDER support

[Joachim Frank]

Recently, SPIDER support, after continuous funding by NIH since 1982, 
has experienced two setbacks. First, the P41 grant that funded the 
Albany Resource on Visualization of Biological Complexity (RVBC) and 
supported the package as one of its missions was not renewed by 
NIH/NCRR.  Second, Dean Leith's R01 application for support and 
development of the package under an NIH program specially designed to 
deal with software widely used by the research community was 
unsuccessful (a fate shared with David Mastronarde's application for 
support of IMOD).  It is the judgment of the Wadsworth investigators 
that revised submissions for the P41 or R01 grant application are not 
likely to succeed, at least at this time, and will not be pursued.

We would like to clarify that we intend, with the help of all active 
SPIDER user groups and with high priority, to address the need for 
continued centralized support, distribution, as well as further 
development of the package. Many EM groups have made a large investment 
in batch files that address their specific programming needs. Despite 
its Fortran coding, SPIDER is widely perceived as a rich and very 
flexible environment for developing solutions to complex problems 
encountered in EM-related image processing.  Significantly, SPIDER is 
one of the platforms supported by Appion, a Python-based image 
processing pipeline developed and distributed with Leginon by the 
National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy (NRAMM) based at 
The Scripps Research Institute. 


Joachim Frank, Columbia University
Carmen Mannella, Wadsworth Center
Michael Radermacher, University of Vermont

-- 
Joachim Frank, Ph.D.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator,
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics,
and Department of Biology, Columbia University,
650 W. 168th Street, P&S Black Building 2-221
New York, NY10032
(T) 212 305-9510
(F) 212 305-9500
(E) jf2192 at columbia.edu
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/frank.html