This proposal seeks to establish a high capacity computing infrastructure to support advanced research in biological networks ongoing at Boston University in the departments of Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, and the Bioinformatics Graduate Program. The PI and Co-PIs, who form the computational core faculty of the interdisciplinary Bioinformatics program, are all involved in CPU and memory intensive research aimed at development and application of tools to mine, integrate and analyze genomic, proteomic and metabolic data. The algorithms, software, and data sets produced with the computing cluster will directly enhance the infrastructure for research in biological networks. As with other bio-analysis resources developed by researchers in the Bioinformatics program, all computer tools resulting from this proposal will be made freely available to the research community through a high capacity, dedicated web server maintained in the Bioinformatics program. The chosen cluster architecture is most compatible with the data-centric characteristics of this Bioinformatics research, as well as the flexibility requirement of configuring a queuing system to accommodate both memory-intensive and CPU-intensive algorithms. Any unused CPU cycles will be made available to other researchers at Boston University. The algorithms, software, and data sets produced with the computing cluster will directly enhance the infrastructure for research in biological networks. As with other bio-analysis resources developed by researchers in the Bioinformatics program, all computer tools resulting from this proposal will be made freely available to the research community through a high capacity, dedicated webserver maintained in the Bioinformatics program.
