Last week IBM and the University of Calgary announced a five-year collaboration to accelerate and expand genomic research into common childhood conditions such as autism, congenital diseases and the many unknown causes of illness. As part of the collaboration, IBM will augment the existing research capacity at the Cumming School of Medicine’s Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute by installing a POWER8-based computing and storage infrastructure along with advanced analytics and cognitive computing software. Researchers have investigated hundreds of genetic cases at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, contributing to the identification of 30 new genes. However, one in four children admitted to the Alberta Children’s Hospital has an unknown or undiagnosed illness. With access to these new tools, scientists can better generate, store and analyze complex clinical, genetic and imaging data, and expect to reduce from months to days the cycle times required for investigations into how genes and environmental factors impact child health. Find out more at http://insidehpc.com/2016/06/ibm-and-university-of-calgary-collaborate-to-advance-genomic-health-research/