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IBM and MGH announce effort to improve
information sharing among cancer researchers
Computer grid links MGH, Harvard,
MIT
BOSTON - November 18, 2004 - IBM and Massachusetts General
Hospital (MGH), a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, announced
today that they are working together to study how the development
of a grid-based, distributed computing infrastructure can facilitate
improved collaboration and information sharing among cancer researchers.
Working with leading cancer researcher Thomas Deisboeck, MD, of
MGH's Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging - who is also affiliated
with the Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) of Harvard
University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - IBM
computer scientists at the company's Cambridge, Massachusetts, research
lab have built a grid of high-performance computers designed to
improve information sharing and help researchers gain new insight
through advanced brain tumor modeling and simulation.
The grid includes IBM eServer pSeries supercomputers on Harvard's
Crimson Grid and at MIT, linked with multiple IBM eServer Bladecenter
servers at the company's Cambridge facility.
"Effective tools for information management, integrated tightly
with underlying computing and data infrastructures, are key to life
sciences researchers gaining new insights into complex problems,"
said David Grossman, distinguished engineer, IBM Internet Technology
Group. "In addition, the use of semantic web technologies to
integrate many sources and formats of data with advanced modeling
algorithms is particularly helpful for this type of large-scale
collaborative project."
In October, Deisboeck was one of nine research leaders receiving
a total of $14.9 million in National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding
to establish an Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP). Centers
participating in that multi-institutional program will incorporate
a spectrum of new approaches and technologies - including genomics,
proteomics, and molecular imaging - to design mathematical models
and generate computer simulations that could improve the understanding
of tumor growth.
"There is an urgent need to develop a common, unifying infrastructure
that enables the integration and sharing of knowledge about cancer
- both in terms of disparate data and distinct computational tools
- with the goal of modeling cancer as a complex dynamic system,"
said Deisboeck. "While advances in cancer research and new
technologies have generated a wealth of new data and insight, all
too often the lack of shared systems and standards makes integration
of this crucial knowledge difficult or impossible."
By establishing the ICBP, the NCI has acknowledged the need to generate
complex synthetic models of cancer. At the same time, the NCI has
identified the lack of common technical standards and tools for
information sharing among cancer researchers and institutions as
a significant inhibitor to more rapid progress in the fight against
cancer.
"The NCI's important mission can only be achieved through these
types of public-private partnerships, which leverage the strengths
of different institutions in a variety of disciplines," said
Dan Gallahan, PhD, associate director, Division of Cancer Biology,
National Cancer Institute. "There is nowhere that this is more
true than in our battle against cancer."
Over the next three to five years, Deisboeck will work with IBM
and an international team of collaborating scientists to develop
a multiscaled "virtual tumor," which will model a tumor
from its earliest stage as a single cell up to a neoplasm with millions
of interacting cells. The goal is to better understand and ultimately
to predict the growth patterns of patient-specific tumors accurately
enough to allow successful targeting.
In addition to the grid, IBM has developed a Linux-based, high-resolution
video wall - featuring 9.2 million pixel monitors - to provide MGH
with the visualization capabilities required for the advanced modeling
of tumors.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original
and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH
conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United
States, with an annual research budget of more than $400 million
and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer,
cutaneous biology, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders,
transplantation biology and photomedicine. In 1994, MGH and Brigham
and Women's Hospital joined to form Partners HealthCare System,
an integrated health care delivery system comprising the two academic
medical centers, specialty and community hospitals, a network of
physician groups, and nonacute and home health services.
Media Contact: Sue
McGreevey, MGH Public Affairs
Glen Brandow, IBM Media
Relations
Physician Referral Service: 1-800-388-4644
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