Gene technology powerhouse

OVER the past few years Murdoch University has become a powerhouse for Bioinformatics, a new field that harnesses the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to improve understanding of biological systems and evolution, assist research into new disease associations, drug targets as well as improve breeds of animals and disease-resistant crops.

The research is based in the Centre for Bioinformatics and Biological Computing (CBBC) under the Directorship of Associate Professor Matthew Bellgard. The CBBC collaborates closely with Western Australian universities, the Department of Clinical Immunology at Royal Perth Hospital and has strong links with Tokai University, the National Institute of Genetics and the Japanese Biological Information Research Centre in Japan.

These links enable researchers in a wide variety of fields to analyse genetic material faster and more accurately.

The CBBC has also demonstrated that there are very significant errors and deficiencies in international genomic databases, and the Centre is leading the way towards much more effective information systems procedures.

The unique approach of establishing a solid ICT framework in order to solve biological problems has attracted the attention of the IBM Life Sciences group.

As a start to this collaboration, IBM has already provided Murdoch with a High Performance IBM computer (RS6000) to assist in research and education.

It is envisaged that substantial IBM support will be provided in the form of training, scientific exchange, access to software as well as high performance computing resources as part of their involvement in the proposed WA State Government Centre of Excellence in Computational Comparative Genomics.