Lenovo’s GOAST Analyses Whole Human Genome In Just 18 Minutes

It has been revealed that Lenovo Genomics Optimization and Scalability Tool (GOAST) reduces the time to process a single human genome from 150 hours to less than 18 minutes. Further, the solution can analyse a whole exome in mere 30 seconds. The solution from Lenovo is redefining limits for genomics research through breakthrough technology.

A new whitepaper, commissioned by Lenovo & Intel, led by IDC, highlights key challenges and drivers transforming the healthcare landscape across Asia Pacific. Titled ‘Leveraging High-Performance Compute Infrastructure to Address the Genomic Data Challenge in Life Sciences’, the paper underlines humanity’s greatest challenges where genomics research-led intervention could impact significantly. The survey was conducted across 150 pharmaceutical and biotech companies across five key markets in Asia – India, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and Korea.

A key highlight from the paper states that while the pandemic-led acceleration in innovation has given a boost to the Indian healthcare sector, genomics high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure that is key to drug/vaccine discovery & precision medicine, is still at a startup stage for nearly 57% of surveyed organizations in India. This trend is also seen across a few other APAC regions surveyed: Japan and Korea lead in having advanced (3+ years) infrastructure

When it comes to solving biggest challenges facing societies and mankind, 40% of decision makers in India are certain that genomics is fundamental to developing a precision medicine strategy to treat chronic illness, rare diseases, and lifestyle disorders.

“The volume and type of genomics data generated is unimaginable and to make accurate decisions based on this data requires huge computing power. This gets even more difficult with complex and unscalable solutions that were found to be cautious factors for 50% of organizations in India looking for genomics solutions”, said Sinisa Nikolic, Director and Segment Leader, HPC & AI, AP, Lenovo ISG.

This is where Lenovo GOAST steps in. Powered by Intel®, GOAST is 160x faster than standard environments. Its accelerated execution speeds mean that researchers get to process more genomes at higher throughput, find answers faster, and make breakthroughs that save more lives. It costs up to 50% less than the cost of boutique solutions that rely on expensive accelerators like FPGAs or GPUs today.

Lenovo’s Lenovo Genomics Optimization and Scalability Tool (GOAST) helps University of Delhi’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants scientists have access to powerful HPC resources that are extremely fast, affordable, and easy to use. Crucially, high throughput (more samples analyzed at any one time) and short execution times are accelerating time to insight.

One key area of research at CGMCP is a genetically modified variety of mustard that has demonstrated increased yields over existing varieties. To reduce India's need for edible oil imports, scientists at CGMCP are working to further improve this mustard variety, using insights from the Lenovo HPC solution.