Australian scientists collaborate with IBM to study human disease

By EgovAsia Editors | Feb 17, 2010

A research collaboratory in Melbourne, Australia, where scientists from the Victorian Life Sciences Computational Initiative (VLSCI) at the University of Melbourne and the IBM Research Computational Biology Center will use high performance computing – including IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer – to study human disease.
 
The collaboratory, where IBM Researchers co-locate with a university, government, or commercial partner and share skills, assets, and resources to achieve a common research goal, will enable collaboration between the 10,000 world-class life sciences and medical researchers in the Melbourne area, and IBM's computational biology experts, who are renowned for applying high performance computing to biological discoveries.
 
The collaboration is dedicated to dramatic improvements in human health through technology innovation in medical diagnostics, drug discovery and drug design, underpinned by a deep understanding of disease. Scientists from VLSCI and IBM Research will work to accelerate the translation of our fundamental understanding of biology to improvements in medical care and health outcomes, with projects such as Medical Imaging and Neuroscience, Genomics and Biology.
 
"Melbourne prides itself as one of the world's leading regions for life sciences and medical research," said John Brumby, Premier of Victoria.  "By ensuring that institutions and researchers have ready access to high performance computing and computational biology expertise, the collaboratory will enable Australia, and in particular, the State of Victoria to retain and further enhance its leadership and bring to bear new discoveries that can positively impact the health of people around the world.