VCU unveils new bioinformatics labs

By Lorraine Cichowski
VCU News Services

Three primary facilities will make up VCU’s new Bioinformatics Computational Core Laboratories when the BCCL is fully equipped this summer, says Gregory A. Buck, Ph.D. and director of the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity, which houses the labs.

Those core facilities will be a supercomputing cluster, an instructional/videoconferencing lab and a research lab equipped with computers that allow scientists to work on gene sequencing and conduct related biological research.

Buck unveiled the labs at a reception June 13 at the Trani Center for Life Sciences that was part of a three-day Bioinformatics & Pharmacogenomics Symposium 2002 organized by VCU to discuss recent developments in genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics and drug discovery. A tour of VCU’s Institute for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery, which is located at the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, also was included in the program.

The symposium was the third in the past year sponsored by the Virginia Bioinformatics Consortium, a group of four Virginia universities – including VCU – that seeks to showcase regional bioinformatics research and encourage collaboration among university researchers in Virginia. The other three members are the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Tech.

Barry Robson, Ph.D., DSc, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and strategic advisor to IBM’s Computational Biology Center, told the opening session of the symposium on June 12 that a computerized network that allows consumers to access their medical records from home and discuss personalized treatments remotely with their doctors is within sight.

"The proof of concept is there now," Robson told a group of about 100 university and industry scientists as well as students and other industry representatives who gathered at the Omni Richmond Hotel for the lectures and presentations.

Robson is the founder of IBM’s Secure Health and Medical Access Network (SHAMAN), an ambitious global healthcare system that includes digital patient records and emphasizes genomics and personalized medicine. Robson declined to predict when SHAMAN would be in operation commercially.