Late last month, the swine flu team from the universities of Illinois and Utah asked UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center for special access to Ranger. They wanted to be able to use part of Ranger on an almost continuous basis over several weeks to make rapid progress, using computer models, simulating how the swine flu virus would interact with various anti-flu drugs.

Researchers were trying to find ways that drugs could still be used against the virus, even after it mutates and becomes more drug-resistant. That lays the groundwork for designing new drugs that will be harder for the virus to resist.