Biotechnology Computing, Arizona Research Labs, Division of Biotechnology

http://bcf.arl.arizona.edu/

Solving leading-edge research questions in life sciences demands interdisciplinary approaches with emphasis on informatics and computational methods.

The UA's Core Biotechnology Computing Facility (BCF) operates with Arizona Research Labs' Biotechnology Division to provide the intellectual and computational infrastructure to support these discoveries. 'We are home to progressive national and international collaboratives and research centers,' said the BCF director, Nirav Merchant.

The BCF helps bioscientists throughout Arizona and the United States develop innovative solutions for extracting information from the vast amount of data produced by their research projects. Carrying out such analysis and data mining requires efficient systems to track the large number of samples and the data produced.

The BCF also provides tools and technologies that facilitate remote collaborations by teams that are in different parts of the world.

The facility makes use of the latest information-technology tools in order to store, process and visualize large amounts of information in a timely fashion.

For example, studying human ancestry and unearthing novel information using population genetics will require extensive mining of large data sets generated by the human genome project and the catalog of common genetic variants that occur in humans provided by the HapMap project.

This process involves the use of databases to store the information and analysis programs that employ multiple computer processors in parallel.

Once novel leads are identified through analysis and data mining, they need to be validated using DNA samples, which go through many steps of processing to verify findings across many population groups. These DNA sample are tracked using barcodes and RFID technologies that are ubiquitous in the retail industry; robotics is employed at many stages to minimize error and perform many repeated steps in a reliable manner.

The BCF also provides hands-on training and workshops for researchers and students on use of these technologies.