Mass data storage and subatomic physics and astrophysics computing power are now being made available to the field of health-related and infectious disease microbiology.
Lyon and Villeurbanne, February 5, 2015 – At the end of 2014, the microbiology-focused Technology Research Institute BIOASTER and the Computing Centre for the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics (CC-IN2P3, a CNRS Service and Research Unit) have entered into a partnership agreement that will improve the storage and analysis of data generated by BIOASTER’s R&D programs.
For many years now, CC-IN2P3 has been providing the mass storage capacity and computing power needed to analyse billions of subatomic physics and astrophysics data as well as to transfer them over very high-speed international networks. In particular, it collaborates with CERN, the largest particle physics centre in the world, and its expertise is recognised worldwide.
Through this partnership, innovation in microbiology can now take full advantage of the infrastructures and experience developed by CC-IN2P3 in the field of particle physics. Bioinformaticians in BIOASTER’s Technological Units thus have access to CC-IN2P3’s batch farm and its “cloud computing” platform to analyse their data at very high throughput, as well as to store these data and to share them with the academic and industrial partners of each project.
In the longer term, the partnership between BIOASTER and IN2P3’s Computing Centre offers new development opportunities in the management of experimental, clinical, or preclinical data, and their integration; an area in which BIOASTER is committed to become a key driver behind innovation in the scientific, clinical, and industrial community.
Nathalie Garçon, BIOASTER’s Chief Scientific Officer, emphasizes: “With the emergence of translational science, biomedicine has now entered into a new era that requires unprecedented storage capacities and computing power. This new holistic approach requires a lot of interdisciplinarity new methods and algorithms as well as computing infrastructures and experimental platforms. CC-IN2P3 has already met the challenges of great scientific ventures such as that of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)[1]. As a result, we are very proud to benefit from the experience and multidisciplinarity of the CNRS teams and to collaborate with them to develop the “biology” component of their activity”.
Pierre-Etienne Macchi, Director of IN2P3 Computing Center, comments: “Particle physics is built on large international collaborations in which, very early on, massive data processing was a critical issue. For over twenty years, CC-IN2P3 has been meeting the ever-increasing computing needs of these experiments, by maintaining an active system and service development program. We decided to let other disciplines benefit from this expertise; disciplines that are now facing the same issues, in the age of big data and its related challenges. Collaborating with BIOASTER is in line with this approach”.
About BIOASTER
BIOASTER is a technology institute that leads research programs in four major application fields in health-related microbiology and infectious diseases: vaccines, antimicrobials, diagnosis, and microbiota.
BIOASTER implements transdisciplinary R&D programs that bring together academics, SMEs, and industrials around thematic and technology units. Each project is undertaken by a team of high-level scientists and engineers that benefits from state-of-the-art equipment, technological infrastructures, and academic research excellence. Teams are led by managers who are well versed in the industrial standards, as well as from a partnerships carefully developed for conducting breakthrough innovations.
BIOASTER, an independent non-profit organisation, is one of eight French TRIs (Technology Research Institutes). It was created in 2012 at the initiative of Lyonbiopôle and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. It was founded by CNRS, INSERM, the CEA, Mérieux Institute, Danone Research, and Sanofi-Pasteur, and is supported by 40 SMEs in the Lyon and Paris areas as well as the French government, through the Investments for the future program, for the Grand Lyon region, and the Rhône-Alpes region. Benefiting from two different locations in Lyon and Paris, BIOASTER has a staff of more than 80 people, including more than 60 scientists and engineers.
For more information, please go to www.bioaster.org
About CC-IN2P3
The Computing Center of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics (CC-IN2P3) is a service and research unit belonging to CNRS. A major French research infrastructure, it is responsible for providing researchers involved in particle physics experiments with computing and data storage resources.
CC-IN2P3 is funded by the CNRS’ Very Large Infrastructure (TGE) scheme. The Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (IRFU) run by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) also supports CC-IN2P3 in the implementation of the French resources required to exploit data from the Large Hadron Collider (CERN).
The main services provided by CC-IN2P3 are the storage and processing of large volumes of data and the transfer of these data over very high-speed international networks. The center uses the appropriate equipment, expertise and software to deliver a reliable, robust service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
More than 2,500 people regularly use CC-IN2P3’s services.
For more information, please go to cc.in2p3.fr
Press contacts:
| BIOASTER
Olivier CHARZAT |
CC-IN2P3
Gaëlle Shifrin Tel: + 33 (0)4 78 93 08 80 gshifrin@in2p3.fr
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[1] The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.