Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
place every second [1]. In health care, evidence-based or personalized medi-
cine requires collecting genomics or other omics data for each individual [4].
In earth sciences, the study of climate change requires collecting data all
around the world to adjust all the parameters of the climate models. Second,
more and more science is done in silico, through simulation and modeling.
Dismantling a detector on the large hadron collider takes months; testing all
the existing druglike compounds on a biological target costs, many millions of
euros (or other currency). Simulating all elements of the high-energy physics
detector and their response to the highly radioactive environment of the large
hadron collider allows avoidance of breakdowns, sparing billions of euros and
gaining precious time [1]. Using docking software to compute the binding
energy of tens of millions of druglike compounds to the active site of a biologi-
cal target allows the timely selection of the most promising ones for in vitro
testing and verifi cation [5] .
The concept of e-science has emerged to describe the creation involved with
the design of in silico experiments. It is about inventing and exploiting new
advanced computational methods:
• To generate, curate, and analyze data coming from experiments, observa-
tions, and simulations
• To develop and explore models and simulations combining computation
and data at an unprecedented scale to achieve quick, reliable, and rele-
vant results
• To help the setup of distributed virtual organizations to ease collabora-
tion and sharing of resources and information with guaranteed conditions
of security, reliability, responsibility, and fl exibility
Grids open new avenues to e-science:
• They allow the researcher to think much bigger (in terms of calculations
or processes) than in the past, because they give access to extended com-
puting resources on demand.
• They allow sharing data where it is produced, because they federate data
sources.
• They allow the creation of virtual research communities that share ser-
vices and tools across frontiers and administrative borders.
We are now exploring these avenues with present-day technologies in different
fi elds of biomedical research.
15.3
GRIDS TO THINK BIGGER
15.3.1
Introduction
The fi rst advantage of grids that comes to mind is their capacity to aggregate
and therefore make available to scientists a much larger number of processors
than an individual cluster. Compared to supercomputers, the main difference
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