Deep Maple - Tracking Human DNA
Supercomputer to Map Human Genetics
Dateline: 07/10/99
Deep Maple, a new IBM supercomputer at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), will be making a detailed map of human genetics. The computer is a relative of Deep Blue, the IBM computer that beat chess master Gary Kasparov in 1997.
"Deep computing" technology from IBM will be used to host and manage the Human Genome Database (GDB). The GDB is the official central repository of genomic mapping data from the Human Genome Initiative, an international research project analyzing the structure of human DNA, and the location and sequence of approximately 100,000 human genes. Thousands of researchers around the world use the database.
The GDB was founded and managed by Johns Hopkins University, but when funding ran out, the Hospital for Sick Children managed to obtain private resources to keep the project going.
In effect, the database is a unique form of collaborative publishing, since the software allows scientists to submit data, add annotations to data, and add links from objects in the GDB to objects in other databases.
The Hospital for Sick Children is an international leader in genetic research, and scientists there have identified important disease-causing genes, including the gene for cystic fibrosis in 1989. The new computer equipment and software are expected to significantly increase the pace of the hospital's research.
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