Researchers are developing supercomputers for quick genetic studying, thus, enabling medical practitioners to prevent diseases and provide better treatment to patients.
Roughly a couple of decades ago, it was found out that one of the most important factors in providing better health care is the genetic make-up of the patient. However it was too expensive then.
When it finally became affordable, it resulted to a pile up of whole genome sequencing. However because computers used to do genetic studying have restricted power of analyzing several genomes simultaneously, researchers had a hard time giving out results quickly.
With the supercomputers, researchers can now run tests on genomes all at once.
Elizabeth McNally, M.D., the AJ Carlson Professor of Medicine and human genetics told Medical News Today, "This is a resource that can change patient management and, overtime, add depth to our understanding of the genetic causes of risk and disease."
The supercomputer, which is named Beagle, is located in the Theory and Computing Science building in the Argonne National Laboratory. It will support computation, simulation, and data analysis for the biomedical research community.
Beagle was also the nickname of the ship that Charles Darwin was sailing on during his scientific voyage in 1831.
To test the supercomputer, Cardiovascular Genetics clinic Director McNally of the University of Chicago Medicine and her colleagues used unprocessed sequencing data from more than 60 human genomes and analyzed it on a supercomputer.
With the use of just a fourth of Beagle's total capacity, they found out that it is more accurate and fast compared to computers used before.
"It converts whole genome sequencing, which primarily been used as a research tool, into something that is immediately valuable for patient care," said the study's first author Megan Puckelwartz, a graduate student in McNally's laboratory, to Medical News Today.
