TGen in Infrastructure, Informatics Partnership with IBM

NEW YORK, April 25 - Arizona's Translational Genomics Research Institute (Tgen), along with Arizona State University and the International Genomics Consortium have signed on to a collaborative technology deal with IBM, Tgen said today.

Under the agreement, IBM will provide supercomputing infrastructure to Tgen, of Phoenixwhich will be housed at the neighboring university, ASU. The partners will "explore" joint research including computational analysis of gene expression under various conditions, according to Tgen. The research will focus on diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

The infrastructure will include a 512-node cluster of IBM eServer xSeries 1350 servers that run the Linux operating system, as well as six IBM eServer pSeries servers for UNIX operating systems.   IBM will also provide its TotalStorage FAStT700 disk storage system, which enables access and retrieval of massive volumes of information, as well as the IBM TotalStorage Ultrascalable Linear Tape-Open Tape Library, for centralized data backup, and the Tivoli Storage Manager.

The researchers are also using IBM's Genes@Work algorithms to map molecular markers of cancer. In an initial phase, researchers are performing comparative analysis of cells from responders to treatment with those who did not respond well.

For more information on Tgen, go to http://www.tgen.org.