Press Releases

Blacksburg, Va.- March 1, 2001 -- The Virginia Bioinformatics Instituteannounced today that Sun Microsystems, Inc, (Nasdaq: SUNW) has selected VBIas a Sun Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, as a result of VBI's researchprograms, vision and staff. As a Sun Center of Excellence, VBI will receiveover $1 million in computational resources and support for post-doctoralresearch in a three-year partnership.

"The Center of Excellence program in computational biology recognizes leadingacademic organizations for their ability to significantly advance their fieldsthrough research and partnerships. Bioinformatics is one of the most dynamicareas of interest to Sun and we are excited to name VBI as a Center ofExcellence in Bioinformatics," said Dr. Stefan Unger, Business DevelopmentManager for Computational Biology in Sun's Global Education and ResearchGroup.

VBI and Sun Microsystems will be working together to coordinate VBI'sexisting biochemical simulation software (Gepasi) with Sun's high-performancecomputing platforms. In addition, VBI's next generation simulator (COPASI),currently in early developmental stages, will be highly optimized to run underSun's current and future platforms. COPASI will be an essential tool ininterpreting the highly complex functional genomic data such as that of genechips and microarrays.

"Sun's support in this project will ensure that our simulation software willutilize the maximal performance that Sun's servers and workstations arecapable of," said Dr. Pedro Mendes, VBI faculty and co-principle investigatorof the project. "Gepasi, already a key component in on-going research, isbeing used by numerous laboratories internationally to simulate biochemicalsystems. The new system will be even more useful asnew features are added."

In addition to Dr. Mendes' research, VBI has created research links withVirginia Tech's Department of Computer Science. As a partner in the Sun Centerof Excellence in Bioinformatics, the Department of Computer Science willreceive support for its research in problem solving environments inbioinformatics, an area in which VBI and CS faculty already collaborate.

Dr. Dennis Kafura, Head of the Department of Computer Science, views thepartnership with VBI and Sun Microsystems as "strategically important for ourdepartment as it provides an ideal avenue to broaden our research in problemsolving environments into the life sciences domain."

Dr. Bruno Sobral, VBI's Director and Principal Investigator for the COE,states that "this is an early sign of VBI's accelerated progress in the field,only seven months after being inaugurated. The strong link to Sun will allowVBI to accelerate its research and economic development missions."

About Virginia Bioinformatics Institue (VBI)

The recently formed Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) is home to aworld-class research program in bioinformatics. As a Commonwealth of Virginiainitiative, VBI is rapidly developing bioinformatics research programs, housedat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. (See http://www.vbi.vt.edu for more aboutVBI).

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