IBM Creates a New Force to Battle Cancer

Computer giant IBM said on Thursday that it is working with an Atlanta-based biotechnology firm and Emory University to develop technology that will enable doctors to diagnose and tailor treatments for cancer patients based on the patients' genes.

IBM developed a supercomputer for NuTec Sciences capable of performing 7.5 trillion operations per second. It is the largest commercial supercomputer in the world, IBM says.

The project, being conducted at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute, is the broadest effort yet to combine high-powered computers and genetic information for immediate patient care.

Scientists and physicians at Emory will analyze the genetic makeup of tumor tissues from the biopsies of consenting patients. Using a database that includes genetic data from other patients, from the treatments received and from recovery data, doctors hope to gain insight as to which therapies are more--or less--likely to work on a particular patient.

"We treat a cancer like breast cancer as if it's a single disease, and it isn't," says Caroline Kovac, vice president of IBM's Life Sciences Solutions. "It's many, many, many subdiseases."

Until very recently, the tools to analyze genetic differences between cancers, even the same type of cancers, were not available. IBM and NuTec are betting that the supercomputer, able to handle vast troves of data, will guide doctors more quickly toward appropriate treatments.

This approach, popularly dubbed personalized medicine, is still very much in its infancy, though most high-tech, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies anticipate that it will gradually become more feasible as scientists further unravel how genes and drugs interact.

IBM formed its Life Sciences unit last summer. If the Emory venture proceeds smoothly, the company hopes other health centers and companies will demand IBM software and services to implement similar programs, in addition to time on the NuTec supercomputer.