A University College, Dublin campus company, Cell Media, has signed a contract with leading scientific and medical publishers, Springer-Verlag, to develop electronic 3-D textbooks.
Its pioneering textbook on CD-Rom, The Dynamic Cell, has led to a series of technological breakthroughs which are expected to impact heavily on the science and medical publishing industry. Advance sales alone have almost recouped the $1 million (£660,000) which Springer-Verlag invested in the product's development. Since it started selling nearly a month ago, the virtual reality textbook has been sold to a number of US universities, and in a surprise development, to world leading scientific institutes, Max Planck and EMBL.
It is the first example of a new system of communicating complex technical and scientific information electronically. The Dynamic Cell allows users explore and study previously unseen territories within the biological cell, as though it were virtually living on screen. All the activities and complex processes typical of the biological cell are emulated on screen, but as the software follows random laws governing cells every user's cell will evolve differently. The highly visual process allows PC and notebook computer users see processes happen that would take entire chapters in books to explain in text format.
According to Dr Rainer Stumpe, head of the sciences division at Springer-Verlag: "A company such as ours is constantly scanning the world from the west coast of the US to Europe for exciting new ideas. Cell Media is currently producing the most innovative educational software and multimedia in the world today."
The user can virtually "fly through" a biological cell below skin level and swoop through each of its component parts. By pointing the mouse at any object on the screen, the user can interrogate the image to discover its identity, function, structure and processes. Each area of the screen is connected to a series of articles explaining that part of the scene. The records contain text, three-dimensional animations, photographs and video to explain an object or process occurring in the cell.
The technology was developed by PhD student Mr Paul Kiernan in 1996, after he set about building a software engine that could simulate scientific processes. As the engine communicates directly with the computer's chip, instead of the operating system on which it runs, it is possible to compute complex processes very quickly and as a result simulate the activities of a living cell. It enhances the basic functions of Windows and Cell Media plans to eventually develop it for the Macintosh operating system. Eventually it envisages extending the process into medicine, where simulation of vital organs could prove invaluable in the advancement of research and education.
The behaviour of the simulated cell was established through a collaborative process led by Prof Kenneth Dawson, chair of physical chemistry at UCD, and a cofounder of Cell Media with Mr Kiernan and multimedia specialist, Mr Donald Hickey. A global network of internationally recognised academic experts in relevant fields worked together on a global intranet developed by Cell Media, to produce the unified study of the cell's behaviour.
Ten people are currently working for Cell Media, although Prof Dawson predicts that this will double within a year, once the company has moved off campus and is operating as a fully commercial entity. Cell Media will release an upgrade of Dynamic Cell in January for Springer-Verlag, and it has been contracted to develop yeast cell, biological nucleus and genetic simulations until 2002. While UCD holds a 20 per cent stake, and a private investor holds a further 14 per cent, the three founders hold an equal remaining share. The company now plans to establish a management team as part of its arrangement with Springer-Verlag. Interest has also been expressed by parties in France and Japan for the Dynamic Cell, implying a product localisation function for the company.
