University of Minnesota - IBM
Computational Life Sciences Program

The Computational Life Sciences Program is an initiative of the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute that is intended to foster the growth of research in computational biology. This program has been formed in order to:

• Focus and enhance the resources, software, and technical support we provide to the University of Minnesota computational biology research community
• Foster and develop the use of the Institute’s resources, software, and technical support among the biological sciences community

To fulfill these goals, the Supercomputing Institute has entered into a special partnership with IBM. This relationship is mutually beneficial, with the following mutual benefits:

• IBM receives feedback through personal communications of user support and systems staff and through the Supercomputing Institute's research report series
• University of Minnesota/IBM partnership activities with researchers, including joint efforts with affiliates, are fostered
• The Supercomputing Institute continues to serve the high-performance computing resource needs of the entire University of Minnesota high-performance computing research community while also meeting the emerging computational needs of the biology community
• The Supercomputing Institute makes a large amount of additional computer storage available to University of Minnesota researchers through the leverage of a Shared University Research (SUR) grant from IBM
• Both IBM and the University benefit from the development of the software expertise needed to take advantage of IBM’s DB2 and DiscoveryLink software
• The Supercomputing Institute is prepared to make space available to IBM staff members in exchange for additional technical support in the area computational biology, specifically including tutorials and seminars

To complement its partnership with IBM, the Supercomputing Institute has also established an affiliates program that provides an opportunity for Minnesota industry and other Minnesota research institutions with interests in the area of computational biology to have access to these computational resources, software, and technical support. Participating affiliates receive the following benefits:

• They are able to use computational, software, and technical support resources for the development of seed projects
• They are able to establish relationships with University of Minnesota faculty, Supercomputing Institute staff, and IBM staff

The program currently has three affiliates:

• Cargill
• Hormel Institute
• Mayo Medical School