TGen and ASU to Advance Highly Parallel Supercomputing

TGen Awarded $1.99 Million Grant to Advance Highly Parallel Supercomputing

Arizona Biotech – Biotech News

TGen and ASU will co-develop supercomputing system, tools aimed at molecular identification of numerous diseases.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today awarded a $1.99 million grant to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) to enhance its supercomputing capabilities. The grant was one of only 20 funded by the Center for Research Resources (NCRR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project aligns TGen with Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and Biodesign Institute, as computational and bioinformatics teams will build a scalable supercomputing system and work to develop various computational and statistical tools that address complex biomedical questions. When up and running, the new system doubles the supercomputing capabilities currently in place.

TGen and ASU scientists are collaborating on a variety of research projects that develop and examine molecular profiles of human diseases and fundamental pathways involved in disease states. The focus is to discern complex or simple sets of biomarkers useful for disease diagnosis and prognosis, as well as to develop molecular classification for directing optimal therapeutic choice and identifying new targets. The molecular profile datasets being analyzed cover diseases including: Alzheimer’s, autism, diabetes, coronary heart disease, malignant gliomas, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, multiple myeloma, and breast cancer.

“In today’s genomic research environment, high-throughput instruments allow scientists to collect increasingly large amounts of data,” said Dr. Ed Suh, Senior Investigator & Director Chief Information Officer of TGen’s Computational Biology division and the grant’s Principle Investigator. “This scalable computing system will allow TGen and ASU scientists to explore those large volumes of complex data more thoroughly and at an accelerated pace.”

“The parallel supercomputing system supported by this NIH grant provides a powerful resource for ASU and TGen engineers, researchers, biomedical informaticians, computer scientists and biologists to interact in solving complex computational problems that will lead to better disease diagnosis and prognosis. This is a great opportunity to enhance our supercomputing capability with a dedicated system for biomedical research,” said Dr. Deirdre Meldrum, dean of ASU’s School of Engineering and director of the Center for Ecogenomics at the Biodesign Institute at ASU.

For the complexities of many of today’s biomedical computational research, handling vast amounts of raw data creates a bottleneck in research due to the slow computer processing time. Technology has evolved quite rapidly in the last five years, making it possible to greatly increase the amount of processing power available to researchers. The system to be developed by TGen and ASU will possess higher-bandwidth and storage to allow efficient development and use of computational models and algorithms at a rate of nearly 24 trillion operations per second.

According to Dr. Dan Stanzione, director of ASU’s High Performance Computing Initiative (HPCI), this means answers will come faster.

“The success of TGen and ASU scientists to date has come at the sacrifice of time. However, individuals affected with disease do not have the luxury of time. The parallel cluster-computing system will optimize TGen and ASU researchers’ ability to meet their data analyses and systems modeling needs, and hopefully accelerate timely and effective discovery toward improved human health,” said Dr. Stanzione.

The TGen and ASU high performance computing groups have also developed various parallel computing techniques such as domain decomposition and dynamic load balancing methods to achieve optimal efficiency in solving computing and memory intensive problems on parallel computing machines. All of the techniques take full advantage of the parallel cluster computer system.

“In an era of highly-competitive grant funding, this award speaks to the quality of research happening at TGen and ASU, and illustrates yet again, the collaborative nature of Arizona’s biomedical research environment,” said Dr. Jeffrey Trent, TGen’s President and Scientific Director.

The parallel cluster computer system will be installed in the HPCI facility located on the ASU campus. HPCI staff will provide management and operational support for the system in conjunction with TGen’s HPBC team.

About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of translational research where investigators are able to unravel the genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process.

About the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University
The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University serves more than 4,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students, providing skills and knowledge for science and technology-oriented careers. Ranked nationally in the top 50 among more than 185 engineering schools rated by US News & World Report magazine, the school engages in use-inspired research in a multidisciplinary setting for the benefit of individuals, society and the environment. Its 200-plus faculty members pursue research in electrical, chemical, mechanical, aerospace, civil and environmental engineering, bioengineering, computer science, and biomedical informatics. The Ira A. School of Engineering also includes the School of Computing and Informatics, the Del E. Web School of Construction and the School of Materials. Many faculty members work collaboratively with ASU’s Biodesign Institute, the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Global Institute of Sustainability. For more information, visit the web site www.fulton.asu.edu/fulton

About the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
The Biodesign Institute at ASU integrates diverse fields of science to cure and prevent disease, overcome the limitations of injury, renew the environment and improve national security. By fusing research in biology, engineering, medicine, physics, information technology and cognitive science, the institute accelerates discoveries into uses that can be adopted rapidly by the private sector. For more information, visit http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/

Technorati Tags: Arizona Biotech, ASU, Biotech, Biotech News, biotechnology, Supercomputers, Supercomputing, TGEN