NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Dell announced today that it will provide the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) with a $3 million grant to support the organization's ongoing collaboration with the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium, which is focused on developing treatments for pediatric cancers.
The latest grant, Dell said, will specifically be used by TGen and its collaborators to optimize a high-performance computing infrastructure for the analysis and storage of genetic data for studies of pediatric cancer therapies in Europe and the Middle East.
Dell said that TGen has been able to increase the number of computational hours by 376 percent and reduce the time it takes to analyze a patient’s molecular data, and that the new funding will help it replicate this milestone in the international trials.
The funding will also be used to provide TGen with Dell technology for use in bringing genomic sequencing to the point of diagnosis and to extend TGen's research beyond cancer to include rare childhood diseases, the company added.
"Time is of the essence in our line of work so we're constantly undergoing vendor evaluations to try to find the right tool for the job," James Lowey, TGen vice president of technology, said in a statement. "Dell understands what we’re trying to accomplish … and it has the partnerships and hardware to help us do it."
Dell began working with TGen in 2011 and said it has thus far provided the institute with more than $15 million in total contributions.