Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Installs World's Largest Academic Accelerated Bioinformatics System From Timelogic

May 14, 2003 – According to Dr. Allan Dickerman, Research Assistant Professor at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, "VBI researchers are now able to do DNA sequence comparisons against databases and whole genome comparisons at a much faster rate." The Institute's newly installed TimeLogic™ DeCypher® system, which speeds sequence analysis for a better understanding of the biological meaning behind genomic data, is the largest academic installation in the world and speeds over 30 types of bioinformatics searches. "The DeCypher system recently completed a BLASTN analysis of bacterial genomes [333,269 nucleic query sequences vs. 191 complete bacterial genomes] at approximately the speed of a 100 CPU server farm," Dickerman added.

"Disentangling the genetic workings of complicated diseases—such as malaria, Alzheimer's, tuberculosis (TB), and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)—requires the examination of extremely large data sets," explained Dr. Bruno Sobral, Director of Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. "TimeLogic's DeCypher solution, implemented within the institute’s Sun Microsystems Sun Fire 15K server, delivers powerful bioinformatics analysis capabilities that allow broad comparisons between numerous host responses to different pathogens," he added.

Dustin Machi, Manager of the Core Computational Facility at VBI, commented "These speed gains make DeCypher a compelling resource, especially since the system requires no additional server room space, and doesn’t impact our power or cooling systems," Machi continued, "We’re excited to explore the additional capabilities of the system and expect dramatic speed gains for dynamic programming methods such as Smith-Waterman and Hidden Markov Model analyses."

"Genomics researchers utilize a tremendous range of data sources, all which are growing at a dramatic rate. For core computing centers, DeCypher provides an ideal solution for the analysis of huge data sets due to its exceptional speed and operational efficiency," remarked Rick MacDonald, President and CEO for TimeLogic. MacDonald added, "Considering the large scale analyses being conducted at VBI, DeCypher’s time savings will translate into significant cost savings for their research."

About VBI
VBI research platform centers on understanding the "disease triangle" of host-pathogen-environment interactions. With bioinformatics, an interdisciplinary merger of information technology and biology, faculty researchers at VBI have been able to interpret and apply vast amounts of biological data generated from basic research. With over $27 million in research funding, VBI researchers are working to find cures for many diseases of humans, crops, and animals; create high-yield, insect- and disease-resistant crops; and provide bioinformatics information and tools to support further discoveries. For more information, visit https://www.vbi.vt.edu.

About TimeLogic
TimeLogic produces DeCypher, the leading-edge solution for high throughput computation within life science research. Computationally intensive bioinformatics algorithms—including BLAST, Smith-Waterman, Framesearch and Hidden Markov Model analysis—are critical for genomic research and drug target identification. DeCypher utilizes Field Programmable Gate Array technology to reduce huge computations from hours to minutes, or multiple months to days. Reconfiguring on-the-fly to process different algorithms for over 30 types of bioinformatics analysis, DeCypher brings near real-time performance to informatics research and enables researchers to employ compound techniques for comprehensive scientific results. DeCypher has been accelerating the pace of bioinformatics discovery at top biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and agribusiness and academic institutes since 1996.

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