In a recent editorial in Computational Statistics and data Analysis titled """"""""Statistical Genetics &Statistical Genomics: Where Biology, Epistemology, Statistics, and Computation Collide"""""""", we wrote """"""""Modern genomic studies collect data on unprecedented scales for the biological sciences. In the 1990s, single genome-wide linkage studies would typically collect information on hundreds of microsatellite markers. In the late 1990s ...gene expression microarrays began to measure tens of thousands of transcripts in single studies. In the last several years, genome- wide association studies have begun to assay ...[millions of] single nucleotide polymorphisms, and looming on the horizon is ...whole genome sequencing which will generate on the order of billions of variables per sample unit."""""""" These increases in scale and the attendant demand for computing power apply a forteriori to proteomic research. UAB has devoted substantial resources to building high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities in terms of hardware, space, and personnel and made major leaps forward in discovery through these efforts. These successes in turn spawned many newly funded genomic and proteomic research projects. This very success now threatens our capability to meet computational needs. UAB's Section on Statistical Genetics serves as a common conduit for most high-dimensional genomic research on campus;UAB's Center for Computational and Structural Dynamics serves a complementary role in the proteomics arena. Our common source for HPC support is the superbly curated HPC Shared facility administered by UAB's Dept of Mechanical Engineering. The leadership of these three organizations come together here to request enhanced integrated HPC computing hardware and mass storage device to support the research efforts of a strong and active cadre of genomic and proteomic investigators.
