Convey Teams With CLC bio to Provide Exceptional Genomics Analysis

The integration of Convey's compute architecture with CLC Genomics Server and CLC Genomics Workbench provides distinct advantages to genomics researchers. "The combination of CLC bio and Convey gives our researchers easy-to-use access to the performance they need to handle our large sequencing projects," said Dr. Robert Geffers, head of the HZI's Genome Analytics group (GMAK). "The integrated solution is powerful and provides an excellent user experience -- making our researchers much more productive."

"We have a number of sequencing projects running in parallel and need to process the data very quickly, but our space for computers is limited. Convey solves both problems by providing high performance, compact size, and easy integration with blades we already have," said Dr. Geffers. "Also, many of our analysis pipelines previously required using a command line and scripts that can be difficult for researchers and clinicians to work with. The CLC bio user interface eliminates these obstacles, putting an expansive suite of tools in the researchers' hands."

HZI is one of 18 Helmholtz Association Centres pursuing a wide range of science disciplines. The GMAK in its function as core facility -- an expanding provider of next generation sequencing services -- works with both internal and external partners. Its diverse activities include profiling genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic changes in pathogens and host cells.

"Convey's architecture considerably increases the analysis capacity for research centers for cancer and infectious diseases, as well as other areas like agricultural research. All of these areas need extremely high throughput genome analytics, to deal with the vast volume of sequencing data being generated," said Dr. Jannick Bendtsen, Director of Consulting Solutions at CLC bio. "It has been very positive working with Convey, integrating their expertise in high performance computing with our algorithm proficiency to meet the needs of our mutual customers."

"Convey is pleased to partner with CLC bio to advance modern genomics and deliver complete solutions for customers like the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research," noted Dr. George Vacek, Director of Convey Computer's Life Sciences business unit. "CLC bio's comprehensive suite of easy-to-use algorithms and workflows brings powerful analysis to the fingertips of not only bioinformaticians, but also biologists and clinicians."

Convey's hybrid-core architecture pairs classic Intel(R) processors with a coprocessor comprised of FPGAs. Particular algorithms -- DNA sequence assembly, for example -- are optimized and translated into code that's loadable onto the FPGAs at runtime, greatly accelerating performance-critical applications.