INDUSTRY

Customer Demand for Distributed Computing Drives Partnership: Golden Helix, Inc., a leading provider of genetic analysis and drug discovery software serving most of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, announced today that it will partner with United Devices to grid-enable Golden Helix's flagship products, HelixTree and PBAT. United Devices, which provides secure grid computing solutions to seven of the world's ten largest pharmaceutical companies, said the collaboration would be based on its widely adopted Grid MP platform. Grid computing allows researchers to apply the power of a wide range of an organization's dedicated and non-dedicated computing resources to run specific applications, such as HelixTree and PBAT, far more quickly and more efficiently. From single cluster management implementations to enterprise application virtualization, Grid MP deployments are proven to increase productivity, efficiency, innovation and performance. "We are excited to be the first to bring truly high performance computing to the SNP analysis market," said Josh Forsythe, director of marketing for Golden Helix. "Our customers have voiced concerns over how a lack of computing power limits their ability to perform groundbreaking research. With our new distributed capabilities, analyses that used to take our customers vast amounts of time to perform can now be completed in just minutes." HelixTree and PBAT are multi-platform applications that incorporate a comprehensive suite of analysis tools for candidate gene and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). GWAS involve the simultaneous analysis of tens of billions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genetic markers used to discover genes that cause disease and clinical outcomes. Using traditional single processor computing resources, analysis often could take days or even weeks. However, using HelixTree and PBAT in a grid computing environment, scientists can cut run times to a matter of hours or even minutes by submitting their large, complex analysis jobs in parallel to a wide variety of computing platforms. Using a grid, they maximize distribution and throughput while allowing researchers to make better use of otherwise idle cycles on existing hardware. "With most of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies using Golden Helix applications and simultaneously operating grids based on United Devices technology, it makes perfect sense for our two companies to initiate this strategic partnership," said Alex Lynch, director of strategic alliances at United Devices. "Together we can provide scientists with computing power that will speed their innovation for the benefit of mankind and the success of their respective companies." As development efforts are completed, other Golden Helix products will be grid-enabled such as the company's popular ChemTree software, a drug discovery tool that facilitates intelligent, target specific compound selection for High Throughput Screening (HTS), Golden Helix said.