Strengthening our biology backbone – RDS ‘omics project
09/08/2017We are part of the NCRIS-funded Research Data Services 'Omics project helping to empower modern biologists with better data services and infrastructure.
Genomics Virtual Laboratory
30/10/2016The Australian-made Genomics Virtual Laboratory (GVL) takes the IT out of bioinformatics.
Ada Lovelace Day Promotional Poster
12/09/2015VLSCI has, with kind permission of the artist (Lisa Congdon, lisacongdon@gmail.com) produced a poster to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, 13 October 2015. This is an international day designed to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.
VLSCI Delivering Impact to Researchers Flyer
19/02/2014The role of the VLSCI in providing access to sophisticated computational infrastructure as well as experienced personnel who can foster a collaborative research approach has been critical to the success of many projects across Victoria. Project outcomes, throughput and credibility are all enhanced.
How bacteria swim
02/12/2010Supercomputers are revealing how the corkscrew-like tails of bacteria work. The research is leading to a better understanding of bacterial life, and to a possible form of locomotion for micro-devices.
A better way to diagnose glaucoma
02/12/2010Computer scientist Dr Andrew Turpin and optometry researcher Dr Allison McKendrick are using a supercomputer to try to reduce from years to months the time taken to diagnose the worsening of vision which signifies glaucoma, the world’s second most common cause of irreversible blindness.
How do drugs work in real life?
02/12/2010A Melbourne researcher is revealing in detail how drugs dock with their target molecules. His supercomputer simulations could help refine the new generation of designed drugs such as Relenza.
Constructing the polio virus – one atom at a time
02/12/2010Jason Roberts has built a moving, three-dimensional simulation of the polio virus from the ground up. He fed data on the structure of the 240 proteins and 60 lipids from which the virus is constructed into a supercomputer. And it put together the virus in a simulated water environment – a jigsaw of more than 3.6 million atoms of which the virus comprised only 900,000.
Finding the Achilles’ heel of parasites
02/12/2010It was once a major challenge to sequence the entire genome of a pest organism to find clues for how to control it. Now, molecular parasitologists are using supercomputers to do just that – and they’re working toward new ways of combating destructive parasites of humans and animals.
Data drives probe into cancer crisis point
02/12/2010It’s work that takes significant, but not necessarily huge amounts of, computer power… More important is the expertise of bioinformaticians in knowing how to automate the search for patterns in huge data sets, and generate meaningful statistics from massive amounts of information.
A squishy cell is a healthy cell
02/12/2010Clinicians may soon be able to diagnose and track the progress of diseases such as diabetes and malaria under particular treatment regimes through a patented Lab-on-a-chip diagnostic device. Behind its development is a team of Monash University engineers, their understanding of the complexities of computational fluid dynamics and the supercomputers at the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative.
Understanding drug interactions at the molecular level
02/12/2010Almost half of the currently available medicines act on a single group of molecules - G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which can trigger cellular responses to a wide range of ailments such as heart disease, infections, respiratory disorders, digestive and other conditions. New drugs are predicted to emerge from a deeper understanding of GPCRs at the molecular level. The race is on.