Africa`s capacity to research biological issues that impact the well-being and economic development of the continent has taken a giant leap forward, following the donation of the most recent server technology by US-based Sun Microsystems and one of its South African resellers, African Legend Indigo (AL Indigo), to the University of Pretoria`s Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Unit.
The mid-range Sun Fire V880 server, valued at more than R500 000, has helped revolutionise the unit`s operations. Despite the highly `computational` nature of the bioinformatics field, the unit did not have any central storage and computational facilities prior to Sun and AL Indigo coming on board. Today, it ranks as one of Africa`s most technically-advanced.
A shared facility with the University of Pretoria`s Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences and the CSIR, the unit falls under the auspices of the African Centre for Gene Technologies (ACGT) and functions as the Pretoria node of the Department of Science and Technology`s seven-pronged National Bioinformatics Network (NBN), with additional links to the University of Limpopo and ARC Onderstepoort.
As such, the need to provide a central repository for research data is paramount, allowing the system`s multi-faceted users to access the most recent information from wherever they are based. The faster the access, the faster the solutions to biological questions.
One of only a handful of bioinformatics facilities in SA, the unit collects, stores, retrieves, analyses and correlates genetic information on humans, micro-organisms, animals and plants, enabling scientists to explain normal biological processes, malfunctions in those processes that lead to diseases and approaches to improving drug discovery. Since its inception in 2003, the unit has been involved in several pioneering initiatives, especially in the investigation of malaria resistance against current drugs. In addition, livestock illnesses and crop diseases have come under the unit`s microscope.
In light of the fact that the bioinformatics field is growing faster than the number of qualified individuals, the unit is also pivotal to providing much-needed academic programmes, ranging from BSc (Hons), MSc and PhD Bioinformatics degrees to address local manpower requirements.
Today, progress in bioinformatics is regarded as a key indicator of a country`s ability to compete globally. With the life sciences industry valued at over US$600 billion per year, substantial investments are being made in bioinformatics, particularly in Europe and the US. In the year 2000, Europe spent an estimated EUR100 million on bioinformatics alone.
Given the concentration of investment wealth and scientific expertise in the developed world, bioinformatics research in these countries tends to focus on localised problems, such as therapeutics and diagnostics for conditions specific to their markets. The biological challenges confronting the developing world are often left untouched.
While the South African government recently announced its intention to allocate R500 million to biotechnology over the next three years, this is a drop in the ocean when compared to the amount of work that needs to take place during this period: from skills development and training, to infrastructural modifications, technology enhancement and the funding of research projects involving some very serious issues, like vaccines for HIV/AIDS and crop engineering to ensure food security.
As the life sciences market leader for Unix servers, Sun Microsystems has partnered with a number of universities, research institutions and medical companies to deliver best-of-breed technology solutions. Given the company`s leadership status in this specialist sector, the head of the Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Unit, Dr Fourie Joubert, approached Sun and AL Indigo for the server donation.
Recognising the important role that bioinformatics plays in a country`s development, as well as the tough financial situation faced by research entities in SA, Sun provided the server free of charge and AL Indigo`s installation services were contributed to this worthy cause.
To ensure the server`s ongoing reliability, together with the optimisation of its full technological capacity, the University of Pretoria has entered into a service agreement with AL Indigo.
For Sun and AL Indigo, the first challenge facing the University of Pretoria`s Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Unit is to effectively store and manage the sheer volumes of information being generated. The V880 server is regarded as ideal for this purpose. With it up and running, the next step is to look at the data architectures, knowledge management facilities, search and analysis applications, and visualisation tools that make up the total system.
According to AL Indigo, the convergence of IT and life sciences is growing in leaps and bounds, placing unprecedented demands on data technology. In some cases, Sun servers overseas are dealing with terabyte and even petabyte files, with volumes doubling every six months.
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