A team of researchers assembled the genome of the mosquito that carries West Nile virus, offering new insight on how to combat the spread of the disease.
The team, led by researchers from Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine's The Center for Genome Architecture, used technology from IBM, Mellanox and NVIDIA to sequence and assemble the 1.2 billion-letter genome of the Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito.
To sequence the genome, researchers used a high-performance computing system called "VOLTRON," which is based on the IBM Power Systems platform. They also used interconnect and acceleration technology from Mellanox and NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform.
Scientists will use the assembled genome to help identify vulnerabilities in the mosquito species that cause the West Nile virus to spread.