The Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Warsaw has selected IBM's Blue Gene/Q supercomputer to support Poland's largest biomedical and biotechnological research initiative. About 510 life sciences physicians and students will use the supercomputer to gain more information into chronic diseases.
“CePT, a EUR 100 million project, aims to support Poland's transition towards more preventive and patient-centric healthcare,” said Dr. Robert Sot, Director of CePT at Warsaw's University.
“The project will allow the medical community to provide a more holistic approach and more open collaboration for the development of innovative treatments and drugs that will improve patients’ quality of life over the long term," he added.
Estimates reveal that about 27.4 percent of Poland’s aging population has developed at least one or, very often, more chronic diseases such as-- cancer, diabetes, heart disease, respiratory conditions, stroke, and neurological disorders.
Early detection and timely diagnosis of these diseases translate into well-targeted and optimized healthcare, as well as improved quality of a patient's life. Similar demands could stimulate the need to carry out clinical and pre-clinical tests covering three to five million Polish citizens, and generate massive volumes of valuable health data which can, in turn, be used by laboratories.
ICM's new BlueGene/Q, code named Nostromo, will help scientists process up to 16 terabytes of Big Data per one sequence by running computer-intensive simulations at the speed of 209.7 trillion operations per second.
The supercomputer will then use algorithms moving beyond the "routine" sequencing of human or animal genomes, to tackle more complex processes that will reveal the rare variants in human genetics that cause predispositions to Alzheimers, cancer, diabetes, downs syndrome, etc.
By understanding what prevents protein molecules, which build and maintain human bodies, from folding up properly and triggering a disease, scientists will be able to develop a new drug or treatment, and then build their own molecules or block the action of undesirable enzymes.
"The process of developing and generating a new drug or treatment normally takes up to three years, and costs have nearly quadrupled in the past fifteen years," said Prof. Marek Niezgodka, Director of ICM.
"With Nostromo, we expect to increase the simulation speed which will bring us much closer to the era of personalized medicine, when preventative approaches can be tailored to a specific condition," he added.
Blue Gene/Q has already been installed by IBM-Poland and Qumak SA, IBM's Business Partner. "IBM delivered the most powerful single architecture supercomputer for the ICM of Poland.
Nostromo is able to process up to 16 TB of Big Data per one sequence by running simulations at the speed of 210 TFLOPS,” said Alex Bartunek, Country General Manager, IBM Poland.
"We are confident that the POWER based Blue Gene/Q has the potential to save years of research and help scientists take healthcare in Poland to the next level," he added.
