Singapore, 12 March 2002 - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Compaq Computer Asia (Compaq) today announced a $12.4 million agreement to jointly develop the infrastructure for Singapore’s new bioinformatics research centre, BIRC, in anticipation of the projected boom in the biomedical industry.The BioInformatics Research Centre (BIRC) will be the focus of education, research and development, and human-resource training in bioinformatics at NTU. It will bring together scientists and engineers interested in bioinformatics modelling and computation, and will foster cross-disciplinary interactions among the different schools at NTU to perform advanced research in bioinformatics. BIRC will also forge partnerships with other research and educational institutions, locally and abroad, to achieve its objectives. Dedicated to the advancement of research and development as well as the training of talents in all areas of bioinformatics, the centre will feature the largest supercomputing facility dedicated to life sciences in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).With this research infrastructure in place, BIRC will receive a major boost in attracting research groups from both academic and commercial institutions worldwide interested in breakthrough bioinformatics scientific research.Such interactions would create the environment necessary for innovation in the Biomedical Sciences, which is the fourth pillar of Singapore’s industrial sector. "With the establishment of BIRC, we are strengthening the nexus between molecular biology and computational sciences", said Dr. Cham Tao Soon, President of NTU. "The study of bioinformatics today allows scientists to simulate experiments in the computer before they try to make the drug in the lab, leading to speedier, less costly drug trials at pharmaceutical companies around the world." "Singapore is already renowned for having the best medical training faculty in the region and some of the best computer engineering talents. Now, with BIRC, we will synergise our capabilities by bringing together a community of researchers,
scientists, computer engineers who will nurture a stimulating environment that will spur Singapore’s growth as a world-class Life Science hub in Asia Pacific." Largest life science supercomputer in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan)
The three-year alliance will see Compaq Computer building the supercomputing facilities at the heart of BIRC. BIRC will occupy approximately 800 sqm of floor space in the new Nanyang TechnoPlaza, which will house key NTU research centres by 2003. To be implemented over two phases, Compaq will equip BIRC with an AlphaServer cluster with 64 nodes capable of 512 gigaflops, connected to approximately 130 terminal stations. BIRC will own the most powerful computing system in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) and it will be ranked among the top 80 of the world’s most powerful computing system when fully installed in early 2003. Capable of achieving ½ trillion calculations per second, the machine will be used for bioinformatics research work. Operating at nearly 1 million times the communications capability of most PCs, this supercomputing system will be clustered together via the NTU backbone supporting Terabytes of shared storage capability.BIRC will be connected to the national Biogrid and other research centres at NTU and overseas via an extremely high-bandwidth connection to allow fast and secure sharing of biomedical data both within Singapore and with its overseas counterparts. A major provider of life science computing power, Compaq Computer is also working on Singapore’s Biogrid project by deploying 16 Itanium-based computing units at the Nanyang Technological University and BioInformatics Institute. "Compaq sees Bioinformatics as one of the key engines of our business growth and the award of this project by NTU is testimony to the institution’s confidence in Compaq’s supercomputing capabilities," said Mr Tan Choon Seng, Vice President and Managing Director (ASEAN region) of Compaq Computer Asia Pte Ltd. "BIRC will be a showcase of how Compaq technology can serve national interests – in this case, a better understanding of the human genetics make-up and leveraging on computer technology for drug discoveries," Mr Tan added. Beyond the technology partnership deal, both NTU and Compaq are working closely to enable cross sharing of critical advances in bioinformatics. BIRC postgraduate students and researchers will enter into internships at Compaq’s high performance technical computing R&D facilities at Massachusetts and its advanced center for Grid Computing at Nashua. "The alliance between Compaq and NTU is an ideal blending of interdisciplinary skills and opportunities between the public and commercial sectors. We foresee bioinformatics would be the foundation of Singapore’s biomedical growth, and the establishment of BIRC will catalyse and strengthen our national competitiveness in the Life science scene," said Prof Hacharan Singh, Dean of School of Computer Engineering, NTU.

First MSc in Bioinformatics to be offered by NTU in Singapore this July
The School of Computer Engineering, which hosts BIRC, is offering a part-time masters programme this July with an initial intake of 20 - 30 students. This is the first MSc in Bioinformatics to be offered by a university in Singapore Students in the MSc programme will have access to some of the top researchers from world-renowned educational and research institutes to gain cutting-edge scientific and technical knowledge in the Biomedical Sciences industries. Assoc Professor Chia Tet Fatt, currently with the National Institute of Education and credited for developing the world’s first and only genetically modified bioluminescent orchid, has been appointed as the Director heading up BIRC. As part of its commitment to develop the talent pool in Singapore’s Bioinformatics sector, Compaq Computer is offering four scholarships to the Master of Science programme as well as an Annual Top Student Award for the masters programme. BIRC intends to recruit some of the best talents from all over the world – biomedical scientists, clinical investigators and computer scientists – to collaborate on bioinformatics research in Singapore. Core areas of research will focus on computational genomics, functional genomics, structural genomics, genomic signal processing, molecular imaging, data mining and visualization, medical informatics, grid computing, biochips and biotechnology. While the new center has yet to be launched, research has already started on gene finding, microarray data analysis and protein structure prediction.