A fulcrum bearing assembly for rotatably supporting a shaft within a housing, including at least one row of spherical thrust bearings positioned at a first axial position within the housing, at least one row of spherical thrust bearings positioned at a second axial position within the housing and at least one row of spherical radial bearings positioned at a third axial position within the housing. A backchannel communications link is established between the first application and the second application, and the backchannel link is used to transmit information such as an acknowledgement message from the second application to the first application. The method is able to identify an optimal cocktail of therapeutic agents for treatment of a disease.