Cloud role in supporting science

Two PhD students from Indiana University have been given funding to work on the development of software systems in scientific analysis, according to HPCwire.

International software company Persistent Systems has awarded a grant of $100,000 to support research in cloud computing and bioinformatics. The research is hoped to improve analysis that is currently hindered by the lack of software tools for automatic data analysis.

Anoop Mayampurath, one of the PhD students from Indiana University, will work on developing software systems for the identification and quantification of glycopeptides from mass spectrometry data. Glycopeptides analysis using Mass spec is perceived to be a useful tool for biomarker discovery and disease prognosis.

Colleague Thilina Gunarathne will study novel programming environments for scientific applications on cloud. Cloud technology plays a prominent role in commercial applications, but it has not yet been considered for science and research.

Anand Deshpande, chairman, managing director and CEO of Persistent Systems, commented: "At Persistent Systems we are continuously tracking new technology trends and aligning our areas of expertise with these market developments. Cloud computing, mass spectrometry and NGS are considered disruptive technologies, and the research can make significant impact in health care, life sciences and other domains."

Posted by Fiona Griffiths