CURRENT RESEARCH
Modelling Perfringolysin, a pore forming toxin, at pre-pore state (2.35 million atoms)
Victorian researchers using this supercomputer facility have access to a powerful tool to help them solve some of the biggest challenges facing the State’s health system and impacting on our quality of life. Life scientists and computer scientists are forming exciting collaborations to improve diagnostics, find new drug targets, refine treatments and further our understanding of the major diseases affecting our community: cancer, epilepsy, genetic disorders, infectious diseases and eye disease, among others. The collaboration with IBM further enhances Victoria’s reputation as a global centre for excellence in life sciences research capabilities. Read more about Victoria's Biotechnology capacity.
The Computers
VLSCI's Peak Computing Facility is currently at Stage 1, operating at 46 teraflops. At Stage 2, in 2013, we will be delivering petascale computing. The systems include 'Bruce', an SGI Altix x86, 'Merri', an IBM iDataplex x86 and 'Tambo', the largest IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer installation devoted to the Life Sciences in the Southern Hemisphere.
The People
Scaling-up life science research to operate on high performance computers cannot be realised without sound technical and scientific advice and collaboration. Facility staff, Life Science Computation Centre staff and IBM Research Collaboratory for Life Sciences, Melbourne experts provide these services, along with formal training and documentation.
