Headlines at Hopkins: news releases from across the 
university Headlines
@Hopkins
News by Topic: news releases organized by subject News by Topic
News by School: news releases organized by the 
university's 9 schools & divisions News by School
Events Open to the Public (campus-wide) Events Open
to the Public
Blue Jay Sports: Hopkins Athletic Center Blue Jay Sports
Search News Site Search the Site

Contacting the News Staff: directory of university 
press officers Contacting
News Staff
Receive News Via Email (listservs) Receive News
Via Email
Resources for Journalists Resources for Journalists

Faculty Experts: searchable resource organized by 
topic Faculty Experts
Faculty and Administrator Photos Faculty and
Administrator
Photos
Faculty with Homepages Faculty with Homepages
Hopkins in the News: news clips about Hopkins Hopkins in
the News

JHUNIVERSE Homepage JHUniverse Homepage
Headlines at Hopkins
News Release

IBM has announced that it will install a supercomputer at Johns Hopkins' Homewood campus to help engineering researchers study the brain and the heart through image analysis. The text of a news release prepared by IBM is reproduced below.

News Release
Contact: Jeff Gluck
IBM
(914) 766-3839
jgluck@us.ibm.com
November 17, 1999
Contact: Phil Sneiderman
Johns Hopkins University
(410) 516-7907
prs@jhu.edu


IBM Supercomputer at Johns Hopkins
Hunts for Clues to Heart and Brain Disease

Deep Computing Technology Helps Scientists Reduce
Research Time and Bring New Drugs to Market Faster

BALTIMORE, November 17, 1999 . . . IBM today announced that Johns Hopkins University will be installing an RS/6000 SP supercomputer in its Center for Imaging Science at the Whiting School of Engineering to help find cures for diseases of the heart and brain via image analysis.

Specifically, Johns Hopkins researchers will use the system to try to discover why, so often, the brain degenerates with age, and what causes illnesses including schizophrenia and dementia. In addition, researchers hope to learn how heart attacks can be avoided by testing different medication combinations on heart models in pre-arrhythmia condition.

The researchers will use IBM's deep computing technologies to construct three-dimensional, interactive computer models on the RS/6000 SP describing the body's anatomical structure and physiological behavior. These models span from the model of a single gene up to the composite intricacies of organs such as the heart and brain and will give researchers a better understanding of the relationships between microscopic structures and organ functions in both healthy and diseased brains and hearts.

By conducting this groundbreaking research, researchers will seek to develop novel drugs and therapies to help doctors and patients battle major organ disease. Using the RS/6000 SP, scientists hope to cut research times and bring drug therapies to market sooner.

"The RS/6000 SP supercomputing technology will allow us to analyze and access brain images from large numbers of individuals in databases, which provides an opportunity to make precise statistical statements about the onset of diseases related to the human brain," say Michael Miller, Director of the Center for Imaging Science at Johns Hopkins. "This has not been possible until now because of the sheer complexity of the analysis."

"Because of the human body's complexity and the volume of data involved, computer modeling is now emerging as both a powerful and necessary tool in understanding various cellular and tissue relationships," said Dr. Raimond Winslow, head of the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology, a branch of the Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute. "With computerized simulations, we are gaining understanding about the functions and processes of the human heart, and saving lives by managing the threat of heart attack and disease."

As part of the research program, Dr. Miller and his colleagues will also have access to the IBM RS/6000 SP of the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), which is expected to be capable of one teraflop performance by the end of the year. The system will have more than 1,000 microprocessors and will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Computer modeling will be done at both facilities, with the more computationally intensive work being done at SDSC.

Authorized researchers from around the world can access SDSC s IBM supercomputer via the Internet. For example, scientists at UCLA, Washington University and Cal Tech can generate tissue samples, have them analyzed by algorithms from Johns Hopkins, and distribute them nationwide through SDSC's Supercomputer Center.

"SDSC's supercomputing power combined with our own RS/6000 SP will allow us to pool the expertise and data of numerous investigators and labs all around the world," said Miller. "Such a collaborative effort, with its rapid information exchange, can only help us make great strides against modern-day diseases."

"The RS/6000 SP is the foundation of high performance computing," said Rod Adkins, general manager, IBM RS/6000. "It provides the world's leading research centers with the mathematical algorithms, computing power, performance, speed and scalability they need to tackle the most important scientific puzzles of our time. IBM's high performance computing technology is revolutionizing medical research."

Johns Hopkins' recently formed $34 million Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute was created in part with a grant from the Whitaker Foundation. Using computer imaging technology, some researchers at the institute will bring together two inherently different disciplines -- computer engineering and biological research -- to advance medical science and the understanding of human cellular and physiological functions and relationships.

SDSC is a research unit of the University of California at San Diego and a national laboratory for computational science and engineering. It is also the leading edge site of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, which was established to build the environment for tomorrow's scientific discovery.

More information on Johns Hopkins is available at www.jhu.edu. Whitaker Foundation information is available at www.whitaker.org. SDSC information is available at www.sdsc.edu. IBM RS/6000 information can be found at www.rs6000.ibm.com.

About IBM RS/6000

More than 850,000 IBM RS/6000 systems have been shipped to over 125,000 commercial and technical customers around the world. The RS/6000 family of computers feature IBM RISC-based microprocessors and run the AIX, IBM's UNIX(c) operating system. RS/6000 products range in size and capacity from workstations, workgroup and enterprise servers, to the RS/6000 SP supercomputer. From businesses deploying advanced technologies to become more efficient and profitable, to governments and universities seeking to solve the grand challenge problems of our time, RS/6000 computers support a wide range of applications and provide the reliability, availability and price/performance that today's information technology managers demand.

IBM, AIX, SP and RS/6000 are registered trademarks or trademarks of the IBM corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and/or other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. Other company, products and service names, which may be denoted by a double asterisk (**) may be trademarks or service marks of others.


Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/
   Information on automatic e-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address.


Go to Headlines@HopkinsHome Page