Atos and the Wellcome Genome Campus, in Cambridgeshire, UK, have announced a partnership to provide a global HPC, AI & Quantum Life Sciences Centre of Excellence to give researchers access to emerging HPC, AI & Quantum technologies.
The Atos Life Sciences Centre of Excellence will complement the existing Campus compute facilities with access to Quantum computing, HPC and AI. Atos experts will collaborate directly with genome and biological data research scientists to help boost Life Sciences discovery and innovation.
Dr Julia Wilson, associate director, Wellcome Genome Campus said:‘I am delighted that Atos are joining our Campus community, delivering greater insight into biodata at superior speeds and efficacy will lead to innovative new methodologies and products, as well as reducing the research-to-product development journey creating a significant positive impact for the various areas of life sciences.’
‘With significant development plans in place, Atos will quickly become a valuable partner within our Campus community. Now is the time to power our research through the applied use of innovative technology that could greatly advance biodata research. This will lead to greater opportunities to translate research into tangible societal benefits’, added Dr Jo Mills, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre Manager, Wellcome Genome Campus.
In this Centre, researchers and technologists worldwide will explore the different usages of technologies such as Quantum, High-Performance Computing and AI through a broad range of activities such as proof of concept production, innovation workshops, courses and conferences.
Atos Quantum Learning Machine, the world's highest-performing commercially available quantum simulator, is already assisting the research analysis capability of organisations including Bayer in Germany, the Centre of Computation Research and Technology (CCRT) at the CEA in France, The Hartree Centre in UK and Oakridge National Laboratory in the US.
Researchers will also be able to benefit from Atos’ BullSequana X supercomputers, which deliver high-performance computing power to support researchers achieve results faster. They are being used today across the globe to support the current fight against Covid-19.
Pierre Barnabé, senior executive vice-president, head of Big Data & Cybersecurity at Atos, commented: ‘We are delighted to establish the Centre, as the potential for collaborative opportunity with Life Sciences institutes globally is enormous. Quantum, High-Performance Computing as well as edge computing assisted by artificial intelligence hold exciting, transformative potential for the life sciences sector, and we are looking forward to applying these in real-world scenarios by combining research expertise with our technological expertise to unlock opportunity.’
The Centre is currently operating remotely and is providing support to researchers worldwide studying many different aspects of Covid-19 such as characterising the structure of SARS-CoV-2 to better understand its mechanisms of infection or modelling the spread of the disease by using mathematical methods.
Additionally, two demos are being developed which unlock the value of HPC and AI to model cardiovascular anomalies and to accelerate the interpretation of medical procedures. These will be showcased as soon as the Centre opens its doors.
