Genetic Research Drives High-End ComputingGenetic Research Drives High-End Computing

GlaxoSmithKline plc is turning to genetics research to help it understand the causes of adverse drug reactions. The maker of the antibiotic Amoxil and antidepressant Paxil is teaming with startup First Genetic Trust Inc. to study how variations in human genetics cause patients to have negative drug reactions. Innovative use of data mining and other technologies is enabling much of the research.

First Genetic Trust is conducting a clinical trial for GlaxoSmithKline that eventually will help the drugmaker understand patients' genetic predispositions to have adverse reactions to drugs. On March 1, the companies will launch a pilot program that will let GlaxoSmithKline researchers access clinical trial data maintained by First Genetic Trust via a proprietary, secure network. The network will give the London drugmaker's researchers faster access to vital research results and let it better protect patients from harmful drug reactions.

First Genetic Trust stores the clinical data it collects from drug trials and correlates it with patients' genetic information. It provides GlaxoSmithKline researchers with study results but not the identities of the trial participants, says Andrea Califano, First Genetic Trust's chief technology officer and former head of IBM's computational biology group.

The company's systems consist of a genetics database, a bioinformatics data-mining cluster, and custom applications that correlate genetics and drug data. Last week, it completed implementation of Hewlett-Packard 16L-Series 9000 Unix servers and VirtualVault Web server. First Genetic Trust uses various commercial applications to manage patient privacy in a process called dynamic informed consent, where patients specify how their genetic data is used. The genetics database company has set up a portal using First Genetic Trust's enTrust application to manage interactions with patients and researchers.

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have struggled to tie together data from different databases, Gartner analyst Geraldine Cruz says. First Genetic Trust removes that complexity. Biotech and pharmaceutical companies spent $10 billion on hardware, software, and services last year, and that's expected to grow 13% annually through 2005, Gartner says. IT vendors such as HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems have created life-sciences units to better serve clients in these markets.