The research facility will use IBM’s Blue Gene Supercomputer, which can perform approximately 800 trillion calculations per second, and will tap into the university’s life science precinct of more than 10,000 scientists to produce groundbreaking medical research into major health conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

“The collaboratory will use data and high-performance computing to model biological systems in order to accelerate research and treatments for conditions such as cancer and neurological disease,” says Ajay Royyuru, the head of
IBM’s Computational Biology Center in New York.

IBM and the University of Melbourne, research partners since 2007, launched the AU$100 million Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI) and its IBM Research Collaboratory with Victorian Premier John Brumby in February.

“We’ve decided to do this in Melbourne, based on the strength of the life sciences precinct and the willingness of the Victorian government to support the investment and of the University of Melbourne to partner with us,” says Royyuru, who is also a chair on the partnership’s governance committee.

“The aggregate research capability in life sciences of Parkville Precinct is quite compelling, in excess of 10,000 scientists, and so are the strong collaborations between the institutions that have partnered to form VLSCI, with the leadership of the University
of Melbourne.”

Over the next five years, six IBM staff will work in the collaboratory with local scientists and an additional US team
of over 60 researchers at
IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

Other research institutions, including the Parkville Precinct and Monash University, will also have access to the supercomputer, which is expected to fast-track ongoing medical research into the prediction of individuals’ risk factors and new treatments for a range of diseases.

“A whole new phase of technologies is now available, such as DNA sequencing instruments which can produce terabytes of data in a single experiment. However, projects now need massive computing capability to analyse this sort of data,” says Associate Professor Melissa Southey, of the University’s Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory.

“The IBM collaboratory provides a unique opportunity for scientists. It is fantastic to get all the infrastructure and expertise together from industry as well, to address some of these big health issues such as cancer,”
says Southey.