ICMR sets up high performing computing facility to boost genomic surveillance and pandemic preparedness
Working to address limitations faced during the COVID-19 pandemic due to conventional computing infrastructure, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has now introduced its first high-performance computing facility at its National Institute of Virology (NIV) facility in Pune.
The acquisition of the state-of-the-art computing cluster, named NAKSHATRA, comes soon after India reported a surge in COVID-19 cases, though the number of active cases have dipped marginally over the last two days.
ICMR-NIV Pune director Naveen Kumar noted that several new pathogens and COVID variants are being reported. 'It's essential that we upgrade to stay ahead in enhancing public health research capacity,' he said.
Genomic research upgrade
Attributing the emergence of novel pathogens to increased globalisation, global warming, and deforestation, Dr. Kumar said that his centre has been doing extensive sequence analysis using multiple strains, which used to take weeks.
'Now with the upgrade we can do the same work in 24 to 48 hours. It has increased the capability of our country for genomic surveillance, which will help us in pandemic preparedness,' he said.
The NAKSHATRA facility enables enhanced storage and optimises the pipeline for genomic research, which ensures better viral genomic surveillance capacity and national preparedness for any future pandemic. The facility supports faster analysis of complex genomic data, allowing scientists to detect new disease threats sooner, respond to outbreaks more efficiently, and accelerate AI-driven vaccine and drug development.
Central data repository
Developed under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PMABHIM), the facility forms the cornerstone of a new project, called the High Performance Computing Next Generation Sequencing Hub.
The Pune facility will initially serve five ICMR institutes across the country, acting as a central repository for sequencing data.
Sarah Cherian, group leader of the Bioinformatics and Data Management Group and principal investigator of the project, provided a comprehensive overview of the cluster's capabilities and its role in genomic research. She said that the computing cluster is tailored to support complex bioinformatics workflows, including next-generation sequencing, transcriptomics, phylogenetics, metagenomics, and structural bioinformatics.
Genomic monitoring impact
Already, NIV Pune has played a key role in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously significant genetic alterations in the virus had triggered the second and third wave and ongoing genomic monitoring and analysis helped in early detection of variants of interest and concern.
'This in turn had helped in paving the way for implementing the booster dose of vaccination for COVID,' the institute noted.
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