Medical Genomics Department
In the area dedicated to medical genomics, there is the equipment for the complete analysis of the genetic code, by means of state-of-the-art tools for biomedical scientific research.
The heart of the department is the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencer, the latest model in the Illumina portfolio, a company with a global leadership position for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) applied to genomics studies. The NovaSeq 6000 can sequence the entire genome of about 60 samples in less than 44 hours, and it has a range of applications that can be used for many research activities both on DNA and on RNA.
Another important tool is the Hamilton Microlab Star system, which enables the preparation of samples for the successive sequencing stage. It can handle up to 96 samples contemporaneously, rapidly and automatically, in standardised format. In addition, the laboratory is also equipped for the confirmation of data obtained from the sequencing of cell cultures, in order to contribute to the progress of scientific research.
Computational Genomics Department
The area dedicated to computational genomics is equipped for developing bioinformatics software that can be used for the analysis and interpretation of the DNA data arriving from the sequencer.
In addition to a virtualisation cluster used for laboratory activities and the genomics data pre-processing phase, this area has special workstations, each of which consisting of 16-core processors, 2 GPU and 32 Gb RAM, dedicated to programming and the development of specific software, specially created for the tasks of research and diagnostics by the centre’s researchers. CMP3VdA also has a complex IT infrastructure with a high-speed optic fibre network that enables the secure, encrypted transfer of data to the headquarters of the partner company Engineering D.HUB in Pont-Saint-Martin. The High Performance Computer (HPC) centre is located here, and it consists of 12 compute nodes (CPU, GPU and CPU FAT) and a 100TB ultra-high-performance storage system, backed up by a geo-redundant storage system with a net capacity of 3PB + 3PB, and another 6 nodes for hosting the Electronic Health Record (EHR) management platform and the ancillary services. All the processes for data collection and storage are guaranteed by stringent European and international standards, which comprise duplicate data storage in another Engineering D.HUB data centre located in Vicenza.