Lenovo, CSIR-IGIB collaborate to advance cancer research via genetic analysis

Technology company Lenovo has teamed up with CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology CSIR-IGIB to advance cancer research through genetic analysis, a statement said on Wednesday.An important part of the institutes work is around human genetics research, which plays a critical role in identifying genetic disorders, characterising the mutations that drive cancer progression, and tracking disease outbreaks.The partnership uses Lenovos high-performance Genomics Optimisation and Scalability Tool GOAST architecture to power through intensive genomic sequencing workloads and help researchers find insights faster.

Technology company Lenovo has teamed up with CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) to advance cancer research through genetic analysis, a statement said on Wednesday.

An important part of the institute's work is around human genetics research, which plays a critical role in identifying genetic disorders, characterising the mutations that drive cancer progression, and tracking disease outbreaks.

The partnership uses Lenovo's high-performance Genomics Optimisation and Scalability Tool (GOAST) architecture to power through intensive genomic sequencing workloads and help researchers find insights faster. Lenovo's GOAST is a High-Performance Computing (HPC) architecture engineered specifically for demanding genomics workloads, that is a significant contributor to this initiative.

Lenovo and CSIR-IGIB have partnered to accelerate cancer research through genetic analysis, according to a statement.

Anurag Agrawal, former director at CSIR-IGIB, said, ''Computing speed and scale are both critical to genetic sequencing. Our goal is to help researchers analyse more samples faster, and we needed high-performing technology to achieve this''.

''The higher computing throughput and capacity delivered by Lenovo GOAST is helping accelerate the pace of research and increase our output, thereby helping us drive scientific progress that makes a real impact on people's health and lives,'' Agrawal added.

Citing an example, the statement said researchers can compare cancer genomes against a standard reference genome to identify potential germline mutations (passed directly from a parent to a child) that can trigger or advance cancer development in humans.

This would also enable improving understanding of the genetic changes that can contribute to cancer. Such analysis can also offer valuable insights into how an individual's cancer might progress and its likely response to treatment.

''We are glad to partner and provide crucial technical support to IGIB's new centre of excellence. It is likely to become the largest site for GOAST in Asia-Pacific,'' Sinisa Nikolic, Director, HPC-AI, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo Asia-Pacific, said.