Gordon Supercomputer Speeds Whole-Genome Sequencing

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SDSC_ejResearchers are using the Gordon supercomputer at SDSC to battle rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease that affects as many as 52 million Americans.

Janssen Research and Development, in collaboration with SDSC and the Scripps Translational Science Institute, recently launched a project to conduct whole-genome sequencing of 438 patients with rheumatoid arthritis to better understand the disease, as well as explore genetic factors of patient response to a biologic therapy discovered, developed, and currently marketed by Janssen in the United States. Using Gordon’s unique architecture, they can test innovative applications of “flash” memory technology to speed the processing of human genomics datasets.

The bulk of the analysis was completed in six weeks (including learning time on Gordon) using more than 300,000 core hours of computer time,” said Glenn K. Lockwood, a user services consultant at SDSC. “That analysis would have taken more than four years of 24/7 compute time on an 8-core workstation.”

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