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The core of the Genographic Project is the global field research. Ten regional centers headed up by leading geneticists are each responsible for the collection and analysis of at least ten thousand DNA samples through collaboration with local indigenous communities. These regional teams act in a decentralized manner, organizing their data collection expeditions, applying for relevant governmental and institutional approval, processing the genetic samples, performing initial analyses, and finally transmitting of the electronic data to the Genographic Project's centralized repository. The principal investigators collaborate to help one another, sharing ideas, knowledge and best practices.
IBM's Computational Research Center (CBC) team acts as the Genographic Project's analytical arm. Led by Dr. Ajay Royyuru, the CBC team brings IBM Research's advanced life science-oriented data mining tools and algorithms to bear on the massive amount of data provided from both the field teams and the general public. Our data analytics capability was one of the primary strengths that drew National Geographic Society to approach IBM as the Genographic Project's lead partner.
We're also actively involved in the expeditions themselves. In fact, IBM's emerging technologies team has designed the Genographic Project's field collection solution, which consists of a T43 Thinkpad® and a customized data gathering application, which was built in collaboration with the principal investigators. The response by the Genographic research team to this solution has been incredible, with several of the team leads calling the system 'outstanding' and 'revolutionary'. The IBM team was so excited with the response that we recently made an announcement about the solution's ability to transform field work... IBM transforms the art of scientific expeditions
We're thrilled to be contributing to the deep science component of the Genographic Project, as we truly believe that this initiative is an example of our core mantra - innovation that matters to the world. | |
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