IBM cloud system to help sequence cancer DNA

Grazed from Health24. Author: Editorial Staff.

IBM is teaming up with the New York Genome Centre to help fight brain cancer. The company said that its Watson cloud computing system will be used in partnership with a New York-based genetic research centre mainly to help sequence DNA for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most common type of brain cancer in US adults.

New York Genome Centre, a consortium of academic, medical and industry officials, will use Watson to sequence the DNA of cancer tumours at much faster rate than would be possible if done by a human being. The DNA information would then be combined with clinical information and fed to Watson to help determine the best way to treat a particular patient…

What makes Watson unique is that it isn’t programmed like most computers. Instead of relying on the information that’s put into it, Watson learns by "reading" vast amounts of information and combining it with the results of previous work to find answers to problems. Those characteristics make Watson ideal for extremely data-heavy work in fields such as health care and finance…

Read more from the source @ http://www.health24.com/Medical/Cancer/News/IBM-cloud-system-to-help-sequence-cancer-DNA-20140319

Subscribe to the CloudCow bi-monthly newsletter @ http://eepurl.com/smZeb