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Compute the Cure is a strategic philanthropic initiative of the NVIDIA Foundation that aims to support cancer researchers in the search for a cure.
Cancer claims more than 7.6 million lives globally each year1. Cancer is a disease of the DNA, created by uncontrolled division of cells in the body. When today's cancer patients are diagnosed, they are given medicine that works on a broad population, not one that targets their individual DNA.
The key to curing cancer is to understand what causes DNA mutations, and technology is playing an increasingly important role in this understanding. As the cost of sequencing DNA decreases, and the amount of data available for discovery increases exponentially, there's an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to leverage computation to push their research further than ever before.
We believe computation is the path to a cure for cancer.
Our goal is to collaborate with cancer research organizations, university researchers, and other interested contributors to develop something that will have an impact on cancer research/diagnostics.
Introducing: Open Genomics Engine
The first phase of Compute the Cure involved funding Virginia Tech and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute to develop an open source software framework for cancer researchers, to improve the speed with which they identify the DNA mutations that lead to cancer. The platform, called the Open Genomics Engine, offers easy-to-access and popular algorithms for gene mapping and discovery, as well as GPU-accelerated re-alignment algorithms.
The platform is now freely available to the research community.
In addition to users of and contributors to Open Genomics Engine, we are currently seeking adopters who may wish to add it to their existing genomics workflows, as well as sponsors to fund further development of the platform. All parties are encouraged to contact Tonie Hansen, Director, NVIDIA Foundation, for more information (thansen@nvidia.com).