ACADEMIA

The K supercomputer, which once held the world's fastest computing speed, may be used to shorten the time needed in regenerative medicine from several months, or even years, to several hours, according to the Riken Center of Developmental Biology and other institutions.

Researchers aim to create organs from human embryonic stem cells (ES cells) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), but the length of time normally needed to accomplish this task is a problem.

The institutions hope to put regenerative medicine into practical use as soon as possible using iPS cells, a Japanese technology, and other cells, and this is where the supercomputer will come in.

Yoshiki Sasai, group director at the Riken Center, and other researchers are planning to use the K supercomputer to determine the best method to create organs from these cells.

The researchers successfully developed an optic cup, a basic part of the eye, from ES cells for the first time in the world. While it takes about six months to transform ES cells into an optic cup, the researchers spent about three years to find how to do this through trial and error.

Currently, it takes several years to complete basic experiments to transform ES cells or iPS cells into target organs, and in many cases the experiments fail to achieve their purpose.

Plans are under way to use the K supercomputer to develop new medicines, work out disaster prevention measures and conduct research on cosmic evolution and for other purposes.

Sasai and the other researchers, therefore, decided the supercomputer, which performs 10 quadrillion (or one kei in Japanese) calculations per second, would be ideal in completing basic experiments in a fraction of the time it now takes.

If the K supercomputer calculates mathematized data on divisions, growth and internal changes of iPS cells to which protein or certain kinds of genes are added, it will become possible to create target organs more effectively, according to the researchers.

The supercomputer, currently installed at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, was developed by Riken and Fujitsu Ltd.

It became the world's fastest supercomputer while still under development last year in terms of computing speed for two consecutive seasons. In June this year, however, a supercomputer developed in the United States took the crown.