A high-capacity data connection for biomedicine

28.06.2010

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM have built a high-capacity connection for data transmission between Meilahti and Otaniemi.

This light path extends CSC’s extranet services to Biomedicum Helsinki, the center for medical research and training located in Meilahti.  The Meilahti-Otaniemi light path will be taken into use on June 28, 2010. Consequently, CSC’s services will be seamlessly embedded within the IT environment of FIMM. Besides being a high-speed (10 Gbit/s) connection between CSC and FIMM, lightpath is  on its own a dedicated network, which brings data security benefits. In future, various resources will be added to the connection, such as data storage and computing capacity that will improve the working environment of students and researchers. The IT infrastructure and services are being developed for the purposes of analyzing and utilizing genetic information retrieved from biobanks.

The new light path is part of the Funet network that provides services for Finnish higher education institutions and research, maintained by CSC. Funet (Finnish University and Research Network) provides high-capacity data connections for almost 80 research organizations and more than 350,000 users.

Part of European biosciences infrastructure

A common market for European research infrastructures and services is emerging in Europe. The National Institute for Health and Welfare, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM, and CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. are working together through their joint spearhead project Biomedinfra.fi, funded by the Academy of Finland. They are attempting to gain a significant role when three European research infrastructures are being developed, with main substance areas being biobanks (BBMRI), utilization of biomedical research information (EATRIS), and biological data resources and bioinformatics (ELIXIR).
Finland has a suitable background for the development of the leading European research infrastructure for biomedicine, because the Finnish operational model has successfully combined expertise from three different specialist organizations.
”Data-intensive collaboration and distribution of resources require a well-functioning IT platform and central in this is a powerful data transmission network. In the future we will be able to offer a corresponding service distribution route for use in other fields”, says Development Manager Tommi Nyrönen from CSC.

More information

Contact people:

• FUNET: Juha Oinonen, Development Manager, CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd., juha.oinonen at csc.fi, tel. +358 50 381 9513
• Biobanks (BBMRI Infrastructure project): Markus Perola, Senior Research Scientist, National Institute for Health and Welfare, markus.perola at thl.fi, tel. +358 40 861 2557 • Utilization of research information (EATRIS project): Imre Västrik, Research Coordinator, Institute for Molecular Medicine in Finland FIMM, imre.vastrik at fimm.fi, tel. +358 50 415 4451 
• Biological data resources and bioinformatics (ELIXIR project): Tommi Nyrönen, Development Manager, CSC – IT Center for Science, Ltd., tommi.nyronen at csc.fi tel. +358 50 381 9511

• BBMRI: Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (biobanks) http://www.bbmri.eu
• EATRIS: European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine (utilization of research information) http://www.eatris.eu
• ELIXIR: European Life Sciences Infrastructure for Biological Information (biological data resources and bioinformatics) http://www.elixir-europe.org

CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd. is a non-profit limited company administered by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Having core competences in modeling, computing and information services, CSC provides versatile IT services, support and resources for academia, research institutes, and companies. The Funet communication links provide research workers with Finland's widest selection of scientific software and databases and Finland's most powerful supercomputers.