CLC Bio to Participate in $2.5M Research Project on Viral RNA
Bioinformatics solutions provider CLC Bio, the IT University of Copenhagen, and the Department of Molecular Biology at the Nano Science Center of the University of Aarhus announced this week that the Danish Council for Strategic Research will fund the research project “PC Mini Grids for Prediction of Viral RNA Structure and Evolution.”
The project aims to produce a collaborative, peer-to-peer software architecture for distributed bioinformatics algorithms, making research into RNA-based diseases like HIV, SARS, and avian flu faster and more efficient. The project involves computer scientists, bioinformatics researchers, molecular biologists, and nanotechnologists.
The project is slated to take four years to complete and costs $2.5 million, of which half is funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research and the other co-financed by the three parties involved.
East Carolina State Buys 128-Core SGI Altix
SGI said this week that East Carolina University has purchased a 128-core Altix 4700 system for use in evolutionary biology research.
According to SGI, the shared-memory Altix platform is well-suited for Bayesian inference analyses that the ECU researchers routinely run.
The Altix platform allows access to all data in the system’s memory directly bypassing networking bottlenecks — a common problem with traditional distributed clusters.
Installed in January, the new system includes 256 GB of shared memory and 10 TB of shared disk storage. For ECU, it represents an eight-fold increase in compute power and a 12-fold increase in disk storage over its previous cluster.
Additional study by the university includes research into complex reaction mechanisms of catalytic chemical processes, hopefully leading to the design of new, more efficient catalysts that will aid in the synthesis of commercially important molecules.
Illumina Launches Support Program for Software Partners
Illumina has launched Illumina Connect, a partnership program for third-party bioinformatics providers.
Illumina Connect helps vendors create customized plug-ins to Illumina's BeadStudio 3.0 Data Analysis Software in order to facilitate data exchange between Illumina data and third-party software applications.
Vendors on board include Biocomputing Platforms, GeneSifter, Golden Helix, Ingenuity Systems, Partek Genomics, Rosetta BioSoftware, Sapio Sciences, SAS, and Stratagene.
UK’s BBSRC Updates Data-Sharing Policy
The UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council has developed a new policy for sharing data resulting from BBSRC-funded research.
Under this policy, all scientists applying for BBSRC research grants must provide a detailed statement on sharing research data, BBSRC said in a statement this week.
The statement is available here.
CTCLS to Provide AlgoNomics Screening Services in Japan
CTCLS of Japan and AlgoNomics of Belgium will supply Japanese customers with screening services based on AlgoNomics’ Epibase computational platform, the companies said this week.
Epibase predicts the potential immunogenicity of novel protein therapeutics, and is expected to reduce side effects and improve efficacy.
Under the agreement, CTCLS and AlgoNomics will work together to supply Epibase screening services, which involves selecting low immunogenic biopharmaceuticals and screening for immunogenic drug candidates.
Ignace Lasters, CEO of AlgoNomics, said in a statement that the partnership advances the company’s global strategy.
The agreement gives CTCLS exclusive access to the marketing and sales of Epibase in Japan.
Financial terms of the agreement collaboration were not disclosed.