October 13, 2009 Marylyn Ritchie, who directs the Computational
Genomics Core at Vanderbilt Medical Center, will be able to
accelerate her research and nearly double her lab staff thanks
to $923,000 from NIH. The goal of the project is to develop a
way to integrate genetic data with other types of knowledge and
with public databases. Although the sequencing of the human
genome has generated a mountain of data, it's not easy to
extract meaningful information from it — even with the help of a
supercomputer. According to Ritchie, studying the genome is
analogous to climbing a mountain. Having fast computers can
provide the climber with strength, stamina and good tools.
What's required to reach the top, however, is a strategy: a good
route up the mountain. "Supercomputers must be programmed to
analyze data in ways that reveal the greatest amount of
significant information. But it's going to take time to find the
best route up the mountain," she said. This article originally
appeared on the Vanderbilt University w