Systems Biology Ireland uses HP Extreme Data Storage technology to advance new drug development

14 October 2009

HP (NYSE:HPQ) has announced it is collaborating with Systems Biology Ireland (SBI) on life sciences research aimed at providing a powerful new way to use the strength of computers and mathematics to understand biology.

The SBI research program, enabled by HP scale-out storage technology, seeks to unravel the complexities of cells through the use of models that predict biological behaviour.

Modern life sciences research is data intensive, generating considerable amounts of information that needs to be stored, managed and retrieved in an instant. SBI is using the multipetabyte storage capacity of the HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage (ExDS9100) system to improve the efficiency of research processes.

“The research being undertaken by SBI will aid the development of new treatments for medical conditions, including various cancers, and allow for better therapies to be delivered faster and more effectively to patients,” said David Medina, executive lead, Worldwide Life Sciences and Pharma Segment, HP.

“The HP ExDS9100 helps make the SBI program possible by driving efficiency in research and dramatically reducing the complexity and cost of storage.”

The HP ExDS9100 allows customers to easily manage large amounts of data, save datacenter space and lower costs. For customers needing high levels of scalability, such as SBI, the ExDS9100 can hold up to 16 BladeSystem c-Class server blades with hundreds of terabytes of storage capacity. To save administrative time, the ExDS9100 features a single management interface that allows complete visibility to the performance utilization and capacity of servers and storage within the system.

“The next phase of discoveries in biomedical research will be at the nexus of technology, computation, chemistry, modeling and biology,” said Professor Walter Kolch, director, Systems Biology Ireland, University College Dublin.

“Extending beyond our storage needs, our collaboration with HP includes engaging knowledgeable people who understand our business and this complex industry. By working with HP and other organizations around the world, we can help speed up the experimentation process and reduce the number of years it takes to develop a new drug therapy.”

The SBI research program is a collaboration among industry and academic organizations, including Agilent Technologies, Ark Therapeutics, HP, Protagen AG, Science Foundation Ireland, Servier, Siemens Ireland and University College Dublin.

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