Blue Gene AIDS Research

CANTERBURY University’s new super computer looks set to rapidly expand research capability for academics throughout New Zealand.

The IBM Blue Gene super computer, worth several million dollars, is to be installed this month elevating the university’s research status .

It means researchers at the University of Canterbury and the Christchurch School of Medicine will be able to address a number of crucial clinical questions about stroke and diabetes, conditions that affect a large number of New Zealanders, Canterbury University vice-chancellor Professor Roy Sharp says.

“For the first time they will be able to model blood flow and complex chemical reactions in the entire human brain, and mimic the interactions of the millions of nephrons that make up the human kidney, enabling insights not previously possible in New Zealand,” he said.

Due to limitations in New Zealand’s computer abilities, such research has focused on individual parts of the brain or on single nephrons in the kidney.

The computer installation would also expand the range available to rival institutions.

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University and AUT will be foundation partners in the Blue Gene project.

MacDiarmid Institute director Professor Paul Callaghan said the Blue Gene would provide leading researchers with “a significant research edge” enabling them to tackle even bigger scientific challenges.

IBM New Zealand managing director Katrina Troughton said Blue Gene had become an essential research engine for scientists around the world, speeding the pace of innovative breakthroughs in biotechnology, nanotechnology and materials science.

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