IBM makes bio-IT research agreement with IMB

IBM has forged a multimillion dollar research pact with the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) which promises a great leap forward for Australia's bioinformatics sector.

The joint venture will develop a joint research program, share bioinformatics knowledge and tools and establish a world class bioinformatics hub, according to an IBM announcement.

It will proceed whether or not a pending application, by IMB and IBM Life Sciences for an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to set up a centre of excellence in bioinformatics, is successful.

The new partnership makes the IMB, based at the University of Queensland, the first Australian centre to win a spot in a worldwide IBM program which contributes computing hardware to higher education institutes to facilitate research projects in areas of mutual interest.

However it is the access to bioinformatics brainpower in IBM's US research facilities which constitutes the pact's true value, according to Prof Mark Ragan, head of computational biology and bioinformatics at IMB.

According to Fiona McMaster, director, public sector and life sciences, IBM Australia, the agreement will create a focal point for bioinformatics-based research in Australia, working with academic and research institutes, government and private interests in the global biotechnology industry

Prof Peter Andrews, IMB co-director, said the partnership will nurture a national skills base in bioinformatics as well as strengthen Queensland's biotech industry.

Under the agreement, the IMB primarily will use IBM products and services in its bioinformatics research infrastructure, including IBM DiscoveryLink bioinformatics tools.

IBM Life Sciences and IMB are already partners in an ARC grant application to build ultra-sophisticated bioinformatics tools that will do for cell research what the current generation of tools has done for gene sequencing.

The application straddles the boundaries between genome/phenome research and complex/intelligent systems which are two of the four priority research areas targeted for ARC funding in 2003.

The application is backed by a diverse group of Australian and US participants, including IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Centre in New York, the University of Colorado, Newcastle University, and Australian National University. However the physical focus would lie in Queensland at the new IMB headquarters due to open in December.