Sun super powers Oxford GlycoSciences efforts In ProteomicsPalo Alto 02 May 2001 Oxford GlycoSciences (OGS), a drug development company using proteomics to discover new therapeutic and diagnostic products for human diseases, recently installed Sun systems to help map, store and analyze the entire genetic protein makeup of the human body.
"The amount of data proteomics research produces is quite massive. Without
Sun's high-performance computing power, the identification of over
1500 disease associated proteins could have taken us until the end of time,"
said Andrew Lyall, IT Director and Chief Information Officer, Oxford
GlycoSciences. "We needed a system with proven, long-term reliability and the
potential to easily expand. Sun's highly powerful, highly robust and scalable
systems have helped put us well ahead of the game."
OGS's business is proteomics, which is the study of the protein complement
of organisms, both in a healthy and diseased state. Specific diseases produce
specific protein combinations, and proteomics identifies these combinations,
facilitating movement toward the development of medicines to help cure them.
The process of analyzing tens of thousands of clinical samples imposes massive
demands on computational power and storage. OGS operates what it believes to
be the largest proteomics production process in the world and anticipates a
hundredfold capacity increase over the next year following the introduction of
its next generation of technologies.
At the center of the processing is a Sun Enterprise 10000 server, also
known as Starfire, connected to a 10 Terabyte Storage Area Network (SAN)
comprised of Sun StorEdge A5200 arrays. There are 12 fiber channel arrays,
each containing twenty-two 36 Gigabyte drives. The end-to-end Sun solution
incorporates 50 Terabytes of backup capacity utilizing a Sun StorEdge
L700 Tape Library.
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