SCIENCE

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- SGI (NYSE: SGI), The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund today announced the expansion of the Ontario Centre for Genomic Computing (OCGC). Using a 192-processor SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 3800 system (178GB RAM, 2.7TB disk), which is slated to be expanded substantially over the next three years, the OCGC provides the world's largest publicly available computational supercomputer focused solely on biological research. The recently installed upgrade represents a $25 million SGI deal with the hospital, which funded the acquisition in part through support from the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund. The OCGC enables world-class research in the area of genomics by providing scientists with a state-of-the-art computational platform to support current and catalyze future biological research in Ontario. Research scientists use the OCGC for biological and genomic research projects such as the discovery of new human disease genes, protein modeling and projects to map the human genome. The center is part of the Ontario Challenge Fund's $75 million investment in genomic research over the next five years. "Ontario researchers are making important discoveries about the genetic causes of disease," said Jim Wilson, Minister of Energy, Science and Technology, Province of Ontario. "We want to ensure they have the necessary resources to continue their groundbreaking work. Thanks to our collaboration with SGI, Ontario researchers now have access to advanced technology for biological research." "The Hospital for Sick Children already has a large genome center dedicated to research. By being able to provide this service to independent scientists and researchers, we provide the opportunity to drive advancements and discoveries in biological research in Ontario," said Jamie Cuticchia, head of the OCGC. "The Ontario Centre for Genomic Computing puts us on the map as a forward-thinking institution." "The Ontario Centre for Genomic Computing is a perfect example of SGI's continued commitment and leadership in the life sciences community," said Jill Matzke, director of sciences marketing for SGI. "We're pleased to be working with The Hospital for Sick Children and the Ontario Challenge Fund to promote biological research in Ontario." Acting as an application service provider, the OCGC offers independent research scientists with federal and provincial grants access to the computational platform via the Internet. A standard user allocation includes time and disk space to meet their computing needs. Once on the system, research scientists have access to a wide variety of applications and services, including international biological databases, bioinformatics training and research applications such as BLAST, HT-BLAST, EMBOSS, TM-Finder and Clustal W. For more information visit www.sgi.com or www.ontariochallengefund.com