NEW YORK, NY (June 30, 2009) – Schrödinger announced today that in response to strong customer demand, it has partnered with Dr. Warren DeLano, PyMOL author and DeLano Scientific founder, to jointly deliver a ‘PyMOL for Maestro’ plug-in module. The plug-in is included with the latest Windows and Linux builds of PyMOL 1.2, and it provides for simple, one-click access to PyMOL from within Schrödinger's Maestro application. "It's been a real pleasure working with Warren, who’s been a visionary and a committed leader in the open source community," said Schrödinger's President, Dr. Ramy Farid, "this plug-in provides our users instant access to all the power of PyMOL's graphics."

The plug-in is implemented as a Python script, which is invoked from Maestro, the graphical user interface for all of Schrödinger's computational programs. The script seamlessly launches PyMOL, automatically loading Maestro’s current molecular content. "The quality of PyMOL's ray-traced images is without equal, and now with just one click, our users can also take advantage of PyMOL's comprehensive movie-making features, as well as its real-time, interactive 3-D presentation capabilities," adds Dr. Farid.

"This development enables users to more rapidly convert breakthrough computational models into compelling visual presentations," said Dr. DeLano, "I am excited that Maestro can now synergize with this increasingly ubiquitous open-source resource," Dr. DeLano adds while referring to PyMOL, "this new plug-in enables dissemination of Schrödinger-based scientific results out to the entire PyMOL user community as dynamic, interactive content."

The plug-in script is available from and supported by both companies; in addition to being bundled with PyMOL 1.2, it will also be available from Schrödinger's website. Reflecting on the development effort, Dr. DeLano says, "This was a fun project that will end up saving lots of time for lots of people. I enjoyed working with the Schrödinger team and look forward to our ongoing efforts to integrate open-source and commercial software in ways that will benefit all of our users."

Contact:
Shi-Yi Liu
(503) 299-1150
Shi-Yi.Liu@schrodinger.com