(Countering new pneumonia) supercomputing technology invests in new coronavirus genome analysis
China News Network, Beijing, March 3 (Reporter Liu Yuying) Intel, Lenovo and BGI announced on the 3rd that the three companies are working together to accelerate the analysis of the genome characteristics of the new COVID-19 coronavirus.
In genetic sequencing, each milliliter of body fluid usually contains millions of different virions, and the genome of each virion contains about 30,000 DNA bases or letters. BGI is performing gene sequencing on many infected and suspected microorganisms, so these research efforts will generate terabytes and even petabytes of massive data.
The efficient and rapid processing of this important data requires the use of more advanced high-performance computing infrastructures, computing technologies, and optimized genomic analysis methods.
The technology Intel and Lenovo have jointly provided to BGI includes a large high-performance computing cluster that can be used to process high-throughput data read from BGI DNBSEQ-T7 sequencing system. BGI researchers will be able to further accelerate their research on the genome characteristics of new coronaviruses with new high-performance computing and genomic analysis technologies, as well as relevant resources and expertise from Intel and Lenovo.
The technology will support scientists to study the virus's toxicity, transmission mode, and the interaction between pathogens and hosts, which will help epidemiological and vaccine design research. These efforts are necessary to create better diagnostic methods and design effective vaccines or other protective measures (such as immunotherapy) in the future.
Through this collaboration, BGI will continue to optimize its new coronavirus detection kit and obtain a wealth of valuable information. (Finish)