Sun Microsystems has awarded the Center for Computational Biology at Taiwan National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), as a Sun Center of Excellence (COE) for Bioinformatics. The first Sun COE in Taiwan, NCKU will join an elite cadre of universities around the world using cutting-edge technology to conduct research in bioinformatics. The award was delivered at the Taiwan Education and Research Conference of 2003 this month.

The NCKU COE aims to build a customized multi-functional bioinformatics infrastructure for target gene identification and annotation in both wet-lab and dry-lab approaches. The center will first focus this technology on the study of bladder cancer. The integrated bioinformatics platform constructed at the center will become a model for target gene screening that can be incorporated into biomedical research in Taiwan.

The NCKU will integrate Sun hardware and self-developed information extraction tools in the form of a large-scale, high-performance computing environment. The center will deploy the Sun BladeTM 100 workstation, Sun BladeTM 2000 workstation, Sun StorEdgeTM T3 arrays, and the Sun FireTM 6800 server, based on the SolarisTM Operating Environment (Solaris OE). Together, Sun Microsystems and NCKU will develop a center complete with the software tools necessary to conduct groundbreaking research in bioinformatics and related areas.

"Sun has COEs in many countries, and by joining the COE, NCKU is able to join this global community to learn advanced technology and industry trends in biotechnology," said Dr. Jung-Hsien Chang, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at NCKU. "Furthermore, the research platform for analyzing bio data will be a prototype, so that NCKU will be able to share the successful result with other members in the community of Sun COEs."

"We are very glad to be working in collaboration with National Cheng Kung University and we will continue to build the tools and technology that can unlock important new discoveries," said Daniel Yu, president, Sun Microsystems, Greater China. "In addition to supplying the technology for innovative research, we endorse a cohesive community of academic research institutions. This community facilitates the transfer of knowledge and establishes an environment for competitive results."

NCKU is a member of the Computational Biology Special Interest Group (CB-SIG), a 925-member organization which aims to keep Sun's customers up-to-date with relevant Sun technology and open standards initiatives, to provide support for the user community and to provide a forum to discuss recent scientific developments. Computational Biology is a progressive segment comprised of bioinformatics (genomics and post-genomics), macromolecular structure, bio-simulation/bio-networks/ systems biology, bioengineering, clinical informatics, and medical imaging.

National Cheng Kung University maintains a total population of 22,000 students, teachers and staff members. The university has expanded from the Tainan Higher Industrial School into a leading university with six colleges located in nine different campuses in 2002. Its Biosciences and Biotechnology Research Center is recognized as one of the first-level administrative units at NCKU. NCKU is listed among the nine key universities in Taiwan by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan.

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