We
are, it seems, surrounded by a sea of genes.
Since 2003, Sorcerer II has crisscrossed the world’s oceans,
dropping its anchor every 200 miles and harvesting samples of microbial
life. The results of the project, financed by J. Craig Venter, ’72,
and his research institute, have been staggering: the expedition
uncovered up to 40,000 new species and consequently discovered millions
of new genes between Halifax and the Galapagos. Venter, who led a
successful effort to decode the human genome, says they have found
genes in many species that also can be found in the human genetic
code. In fact, they have made so many discoveries that researchers
have had trouble finding computers to handle all the data. For a
while, Venter’s institute even used servers that animated the
movie Shrek 2.
Now with a $24.5 million gift from the Gordon and
Betty Moore Foundation (part of The Campaign for UCSD), the J. Craig
Venter Institute and UCSD will create the Community Cyberinfrastructure
for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA). Each computer in the CAMERA server is about 200 times more powerful
than a home PC, says John Wooley, associate
vice chancellor of research and one of the investigators on
the project. Researchers also will be able to access the server through
connections that are 100 times faster than today’s Internet.
So scientists in Sweden, for example, could work with CAMERA as if
they were in the next room on the UCSD campus.
The database will allow researchers to analyze the genetic code
of ocean microbes in relation to many pieces of information,
including
data about their environment and about other microbial species.“
This initiative,” said Chancellor Marye Anne Fox
at a January press conference, “puts UCSD
at the forefront of a new discipline.”
UCSD’s California Institute
for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) will
lead the project
in partnership with the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, MD,
the Center
for Earth Observations and Applications
at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the UCSD Supercomputer
Center. Researchers also have ties to UCSD’s School of Medicine
and School of Pharmacy.  — Ioana Patringenaru
|
