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Big genomic data is coming

February 2015 - The Garvan Institute of Medical Research has become a collaboration partner of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), bringing together the southern hemisphere s largest genome sequencing centre and its most powerful supercomputing environment for data-intensive research.

Together, the two institutions will develop systems for the secure, centralised storage and analysis of genomic information in Australia.

The collaboration will mean that the large-scale genomic data generated by the 70 bioinformaticians at Garvan can be cost-effectively archived, while it also will become easier for collaborating research partners to access the data for research purposes using the NCI s supercomputer or high-performance cloud computing infrastructure. Importantly, the NCI is maintaining strict rules of access that ensure data remains secure.

As Professor Chris Goodnow, deputy director of Garvan pointed out: "Some things are just best handled at the national scale, and the secure storage and analysis of genomic information is one of those things."

Partnering with Garvan marks a new direction for the NCI, whose hosted datasets have until now focused on geological and meteorological data, climate science, and information from satellite imagery.

As Australia s national, high-performance research computing facility, NCI manages the Southern Hemisphere s most integrated supercomputer and filesystems, delivering high-quality computational and data services to researchers in three national science agencies, and nearly 30 of Australia s universities.