Re-Store collaborates to advance genomics research

09 June, 2017
Nicki Anzivina
IBM

In today’s fast-paced environment, having the right hardware, software, networking devices and storage in an optimum configuration is the first step toward a successful computationally intensive research project. The right set-up can allow a research team to hit the ground running.

Recently, Re-Store was involved in a multi-part collaboration effort, bringing their skills and expertise to the table to further enable advanced genomic research.

Re-Store collaborated with IBM Power Systems, Mellanox, NVIDIA and The Center for Genome Architecture (TC4GA) at Baylor College of Medicine to build out an extremely innovative, scalable HPC system based on the Power Systems platform (Power8 Firestone x5). The Center for Genome Architecture explores all aspects of genome structure – from the 1D sequence of the bases to the 3D folding that enables them to fit inside the nucleus of a cell.

Genomics are immensely significant in science today, and advances in genomics research have triggered a revolution in understanding the most complex biological systems. Researchers can use DNA sequencing to search for variation and mutations that may play a role in the development or progression of a disease. This is indeed what Baylor’s research has been focused on – sequencing genomes, most recently, those that combat disease like a mosquito carrying the West Nile Virus.

Their work is computationally intensive, and with IBM Power Systems, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Re-Store teaming up to help make Baylor’s research possible, they were able to achieve results faster and at a lower cost, providing their researchers with an efficient and scalable platform. Every second of compute time counts when it comes to genomic research.

Re-Store deployed and configured the hardware, storage, HPC software and networking devices for the Baylor team. This work helped the Baylor team to have a solid starting HPC hardware and software base in their lab.

Re-Store’s Director of Engineering Bernard Shen and Senior Managing Consultant Dr. Hideaki Kikuchi were instrumental to the deployment. When Re-Store’s President and Chief Architect, Michael Sedlmayer, was asked about Re-Store’s involvement, he says:

“Re-Store understood the importance of this project and wanted to help in any way possible to further Baylor’s research capabilities in being able to process large amounts of data at the highest rate of speed.”

Re-Store is an IBM Business Partner focused on the architectural design of complex digital infrastructures. They specialize in data-intensive and compute-intensive applications, allowing companies to not only store the data, but also to understand the data. They are HPC experts that specialize in scalability.

If you would like more information on the optimization or configuration of hardware and software for genomic research, please visit Re-Store and click on Contact.

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