2008-06-17 23:36:30 -

2008 BIO International Convention - More breakthroughs in life-threatening diseases will be possible as a result of plans to make Victoria, Australia home to the world's largest life sciences supercomputer, Victoria Premier John Brumby announced today.

Visiting the University of California's San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), Mr. Brumby announced the Victorian Government would invest $50 million in the supercomputer,

complementing University of Melbourne and other funding of $50 million to establish the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative at the University's Parkville Precinct.

"The world's largest life sciences supercomputer, based in Melbourne, will accelerate ground-breaking research in key areas such as cancer, cardio-vascular and neurological disease, chronic inflammatory diseases, bone diseases, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases," Mr. Brumby said.

"The $100 million Supercomputer will focus on 'life sciences' utilising leading-edge research practices, such as using large databases of genetic information, complex models of analysis of human systems and hundreds of 'teraflops' of computing power to increase speed to discovery."

Joining the Premier on the tour of SDSC, the Minister for Innovation, Gavin Jennings, said the supercomputer confirmed Victoria's position as global leader in biomedical and scientific research.

"The $100 million supercomputer program will enable Victoria's medical researchers to predict the likely resistance path of viruses to existing drugs, enabling researchers to stay one step ahead in designing better treatments," Mr. Jennings said.

"Since 1999 our Government has invested more than $2 billion in key research infrastructure, such as the Synchrotron, to foster new life-saving discoveries and make Victoria a world leader."

In Melbourne to announce the supercomputer initiative with the University of Melbourne, the Minister for Information and Communications Technology, Theo Theophanous, said researchers from the Parkville Precinct, Monash University and other Victorian research institutions will have access to the Supercomputer.

"The Brumby Government is making strategic investments in key information and communications technology (ICT) to save lives in Victoria and beyond," Mr. Theophanous said.

"The Premier nominated cancer and preventable chronic disease as a key priority and new, leading edge ICT infrastructure has the capacity to help address those diseases and improve health outcomes in Victoria, interstate and overseas."

Joining Mr. Theophanous at the Melbourne launch, University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis said that as part of the initiative the University of Melbourne would develop a Life Sciences Computation Centre to undertake peak computing operations and share its computational biology expertise with other institutions in the Parkville Precinct.

"We are tremendously excited about the potential for this initiative to expand dramatically the State's and the University's capacity in bioinformatics, computational biology and advanced biomedical image analysis," Professor Davis said.

"The far-reaching vision and scale of this initiative will combine Victoria's already globally competitive biomedical research capability with computational infrastructure specially designed for the life sciences, equal to the best in the world.

"Life sciences research is being transformed by the application of rapid advances in computational biology, powered by innovations in very high performance computers and data management."

The University of Melbourne will release initial expressions of interest for the peak computing facility in 2008, with major installations planned for 2009 and 2011.

State of Victoria, Australia
George Svigos, +61 0400 140 416 (Australia)
www.vic.gov.au
or
FS Communications
Matt Schmidt, 1-650-796-2679 (US)
matt@fscomm.com