IBM, together with the Israeli Melnox and NVIDIA, decoded the genome of the Nile fever mosquito

POWER IBM systems combined with technology from the Israeli Mellanox cracked the genome of the Nile fever mosquito

A research team led by scientists from the Center for the Architecture of the Genome at the Baylor University School of Medicine used IBM technologies, combined with systems from the Israeli Mellonox and the NVIDIA company, in order to decode the 1.2 billion genome sequence of the Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito - which carries and spreads the West Nile virus. Understanding the genomic structure may help in the fight against the virus, by identifying weak points in the mosquito's genetic structure.

The high-performance computing (HPC) system, which was used to decipher the genetic structure of the mosquito, is based on the IBM Power Systems platform that offers scalable and scalable processing capabilities, required to handle a wide range of data processing-based research activities. The system operating at Baylor, which was named "VOLTRON", joins a long line of supercomputers manufactured by IBM installed in the service of bodies such as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA, and the British Hartree Scientific Center.

VOLTRON - as the name of the comic book hero who protects the world, presents the ability to assemble and interpret 4D structures that allows scientists to decipher the way genes are sequenced, by following the folding patterns of the DNA chain and the intersection points of the various molecules. The methodology developed at Baylor based on IBM's systems is faster and cheaper than previous tiling methods. Thus, for example, while the first project to decipher the human gene required an investment of 10,000 billion dollars, the XNUMXD assembly method allows the presentation of a similar genomic sequence within only a few weeks, and with an investment of less than XNUMX dollars.

According to Olga Dodchenko, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Genomic Architecture at the Baylor University School of Medicine, "technology makes it possible to change the way we build the image of the genomic array. VOLTRON was originally built to decode the human genome sequence - a method that can now be applied to an incredible variety of species and life forms. This possibility provides an opportunity to study mosquitoes, which carry diseases that harm humans around the world."

Erez Lieberman Aidan, Director of the Genome Architecture Center, explains that "XNUMXD assembly and IBM technology present an amazing combination: one requires enormous computing power - which the other provides."

The Center for the Architecture of the Genome works in close cooperation with the Israeli Mellanox, in order to derive maximum value from the research capabilities based on the high-performance computing system VOLTRON. Leveraging Mellanox's smart communication technology, and performance acceleration engines, allow the center to offer researchers an efficient and scalable platform that improves gene sequencing capacity, in order to find cures for life-threatening diseases.

Key to Baylor University's research breakthrough is also the long-standing collaboration between IBM and NVIDIA, in designing systems capable of leveraging the open architecture of POWER processors in order to take advantage of the processing capabilities of NVIDIA Tesla accelerators.

The design of the VOLTRON system combines POWER and Tesla technologies in a way that allows researchers to handle huge amounts of data, at extremely high speed. Voltron is built in a four-system cluster configuration, each of which includes eight NVIDIA Tesla graphics accelerators that have been specially tuned to offer optimal performance in genomic research tasks.