Newswise — Recent philanthropic gifts to Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research are "ramping up" the power of the organization's already world-renowned genetic research resources.
The donor-funded enhancements should dramatically accelerate the speed with which SFBR researchers can hunt for genes that influence our susceptibility to complex human diseases as varied as heart disease, diabetes, brain disorders and cancer.
A $1 million gift from the AT&T Foundation, the charitable philanthropy organization of AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T), will allow SFBR's AT&T Genomics Computing Center to double the power and speed of its "computer ranch," the world's largest cluster of computers linked together for genetic analysis. The gift funds an update in the center's networking system, improvements in power supply, and the purchase of 375 new four-processor Opteron-based computers.
That allows the center's "computer ranch" to expand from the current 1,500 processors working in parallel to a total of 3,000.
"This leap in computing power makes our facility more than 2.5 times the size of that of any of our competitors around the globe and guarantees the primacy of SFBR as the world's leading center for the genetic analysis of common complex diseases," said Dr. John Blangero, a scientist in the SFBR Department of Genetics and director of its AT&T Genomics Computing Center.
"What this means for human health is that we're now even better equipped for success in finding genes and genetic mutations that put us at greater risk for " or help protect us from " a wide array of complex diseases," Blangero said. "And the sooner we can identify those genes, the sooner they can become the targets of new methods of disease prevention and treatment."
"AT&T is proud to be in support of the groundbreaking studies taking place at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research," said AT&T senior vice president, Western region legislative and regulatory affairs, John T. Montford. "We hope this grant will allow people across the globe to soon benefit from the new knowledge and information produced by the foundation's gifted scientists."
A separate $300,000 gift to SFBR from the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation has funded the purchase of next-generation genome sequencing technology, the Illumina 1G Genetic Analyzer. This new piece of genetic laboratory equipment gives SFBR researchers the ability to produce more genetic data at an unprecedented rate.
With sequence output that is 1,000 times greater than genetic sequencers used for the Human Genome Project, this machine can complete in one week a similar amount of DNA sequencing work that took all of the facilities involved in the Human Genome Project over six months to achieve, said Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, chair of the SFBR Genetics Department. "The decrease in time required to conduct genetic sequencing [of study samples] will allow SFBR scientists to undertake much larger investigations and examine much broader stretches of DNA than previously thought possible," she said.
On the leading edge of genetic research
Williams-Blangero explained that these technological advances are propelling SFBR geneticists to the future of genetic research: whole or nearly whole genome sequencing studies. In these kinds of investigations, scientists shift their approach from the traditional method of focusing on the examination of one gene at a time to examining all, or a large subset of, the approximately 30,000 genes in the human genome simultaneously.
"This is a revolutionary new approach that will dramatically enhance all of our ongoing genetic studies," said Williams-Blangero.
Application to human health issues
Offering an example, John Blangero explained that, in one research project, he and his colleagues have identified over 1,000 genes whose activities appear to be correlated with that of the gene known to be defective in individuals who have cystinosis. Cystinosis is a rare genetic metabolic disease that primarily affects children. It causes an amino acid, cystine, to accumulate in various organs of the body, and without specific treatment, can lead to end-stage kidney failure at approximately age 9.
"By examining large numbers of these genes [that are correlated with the gene that causes cystinosis], we can further pinpoint the potential causal pathway that the disease takes when it leads to the damaging symptoms associated with pathology. And by rapidly identifying these genetic 'players,' we can generate subsets of potential genes that may be useful as drug targets to relieve or even eliminate symptoms of the disease," Blangero said.
Williams-Blangero said that the advances in genetic data generation funded by the Coates Foundation and the advances in data analysis funded by the AT&T Foundation are an ideal combination to propel genetic discoveries to help combat disease and improve human health.
She said she is eager to see the payoff of applying the resources to SFBR's 16 human genetic research projects that involve more than 20,000 study volunteers. The projects are aimed at advances in preventing and treating heart disease, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, malaria and helminthic (worm) infections. With the addition of these new research resources, Williams-Blangero expects to see the Foundation also undertake new ventures in the field of cancer genetics.
Building upon a world-class resource
John Blangero pointed out that, in the short time since the opening of the AT&T Genomics Computing Center in 2003, SFBR scientists already have made numerous breakthroughs, identifying the locations of genes that play a role in heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, inflammation and parasitic diseases. These breakthroughs came after the AT&T Foundation (then the SBC Foundation) and other donors funded the construction of the new center, enabling SFBR geneticists to grow their "computer ranch" from an innovative but closet-sized operation to its current size of 1,500 parallel processors.
That advancement allowed SFBR geneticists to put their novel statistical methods and genetic software to greater use, completing complex genetic analyses that once took months in a matter of minutes. Blangero expects the current upgrade to have a similar impact " and perhaps prove even more critical " when coupled with upgrades being made to SFBR's genetic sequencing resources.
"Our thanks go to the AT&T Foundation and the Coates Foundation, who together are dramatically accelerating the speed with which the keys to understanding complex diseases of major public health impact can be discovered," Williams-Blangero said. "These gifts will better enable SFBR scientists to identify previously unknown genes that directly influence a person's risk of disease, and to do so at an unprecedented rate that no other research group can match."
About SFBR Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research is one of the leading independent biomedical research institutions in the United States, dedicated to advancing human health through innovative biomedical research. It is recognized within scientific and academic communities worldwide for the quality of its basic research into the nature, causes, preventions, and treatments for disease. SFBR's staff of more than 75 doctoral-level scientists conducts nearly 200 major research projects, with marked success in the areas of genetics, neonatal development, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.
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