National Institute of Biomedical Genomics Deploys DDN

As the first research institution in India devoted to genome-based research for human health and disease, the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) is taking a bite out of oral cancer with its research into the most common cancer among males in India with the help of solution comprising block, file and object storage solutions from DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN).

To fuel its cancer research, the institute has deployed a platform solution that includes DDN SFA parallel file system, the massively scalable and GRIDScaler parallel file system and WOS object storage platform, to better handle big data ingest, processing, storing, collaboration and DR.

NIBMG uses massively-parallel DNA sequencing to process huge amounts of DNA sequence data to perform meaningful scientific interpretations and analyses, generating up to 500TB of data on 500 oral cancer patients as part of its initiative under the aegis of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. With its legacy storage platform, it became difficult to ingest large datasets from next-gen sequencers and feed them to HPC clusters fast enough, and then securely share both raw data and results for collaboration and publishing purposes.

After deploying DDN’s high-throughput, scalable and reliable storage solutions, NIBMG scientists have achieved an improvement in data ingest time over its previous storage platform, enabling the team to run concurrent sequence analysis of twice as many patients, while translating results for broader research benefits in as little as three-to-four months.

As a result, a team of Indian scientists has identified new genes and biological pathways specific to oral cancer associated predominantly with smokeless tobacco consumption in India. Further detailed study on these discoveries may lead to finding better therapies for oral cancer faster.

DDN’s high-throughput, scalable storage powers more than one-third of the world’s top genomics centers, along with a number of clinical and pharmaceutical research sites.

DDN expedites time to insight and lowers TCO with industry throughput and scalability
DDN’s file and object storage is designed to ingest data into NIBMG’s research environment and then help simplify data analysis as well as securely share raw data and results for collaboration and publishing.

With DDN technology, NIBMG can sustain the highest levels of performance to ensure simultaneous sequencer ingest and HPC research on thousands of large data sets.

WOS Object Storage is versatile, serving as a backup for crucial research results as well as an active archive to make it easier for NIBMG to share ideas and results with research groups around the world.

Based on the ease with which the institute can expand capacity without having to replace systems, NIBMG is already seeing benefits from DDN storage. Additionally, due to the high-density of the DDN platform, NIBMG has been able to manage and administer storage more efficiently.

Dr. Nidhan K. Biswas, Young biotechnologist awardee, NIBMG, said: “By performing our computations on faster storage, we will be able to complete our research in much less time. With slower storage, it might take up to a year to process our data but now we can complete it within three-to-four months, which enables us to translate results for broader research benefits much faster and more effectively.“

“One of the biggest advantages of parallel processing is that we can run jobs for about 40 patients concurrently, which is twice what we could handle before, accelerating analysis for a larger number of patients. DDN’s industry-leading scalability means that we can grow in place to support PBs of vital research data as we continue to manage the ICGC and other projects.“

“DDN’s scalable, reliable storage and integrated collaboration and archive solution for research communities is suited for NIBMG. We have a lot of confidence that DDN will continue to help us manage explosive data growth while ensuring more actionable research results and faster cures for deadly cancers.“

Bikram Roy, systems analyst, NIBMG, said: “The main reason we chose DDN was the high performance throughput and the ability to scale up or out in order to have high performance storage and fast ingest and analysis in the same platform.

“We felt that DDN was best suited to help us quickly and easily process a large amount of fixed, raw data to produce meaningful interpretations for further analysis of genetic mutations and cancer-causing changes in DNA. Dealing with thousands of very big files requires a huge processing pipeline, along with unprecedented IO/s and bandwidth performance, all of which DDN provides.

“The beauty of WOS is its infinite scalability without an underlying file system. There are no overwrites means our data is safe for whatever retention period we need, and it has lots of space for both backup and collaboration.“