Combating Disease with Innovation

Mike Svinte, IBM VP, Information Based Medicine

Using IBM technology and resources to fight disease emerged as one of the top themes last year in IBM's WorldJam event — one of our regular companywide brainstorming and collaboration sessions. Participants called for IBM to collaborate with ecosystem partners to make "publicly noteworthy progress" against a major disease. Work in this area is ongoing throughout IBM.

"IBM doesn't leap to mind when it comes to disease research, but the reality is we are working with many major research institutions including the Mayo Clinic, Sweden's Karolinska Institute and EPFL in Switzerland to make advances in a range of diseases including cancer, alzheimer's disease, and many others," said Ajay Royyuru, Senior Manager of the Computational Biology Center at IBM Research.   

IBM and ecosystem partners are helping to change the world through initiatives like the Global Innovation Outlook and the National Innovation Initiative. In addition to these far-reaching efforts, IBM works with clients on very specific solutions to learn more about, fight, and hopefully cure disease.

"IBM Healthcare and Lifesciences harnesses the power of our entire company, from hardware, to software to research, delivering deep industry expertise and innovative thinking, while partnering with industry leaders to gain new insights and discover cures for major diseases through information based medicine," said Carol Kovac, General Manager for the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry in IBM Sales & Distribution. 

The following five examples represent some of IBM's work in helping to fight disease with clients and with the industry. 

Advancing research on childhood leukemia

IBM and St. Justine's Pediatric Research Center, a university teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Montreal, are working together to implement  a clinical genomics solution to help speed time for cancer research and improve patient outcomes. Initial research will focus on acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer responsible for 25 percent of all childhood tumors. IBM is helping researchers optimize their work and develop therapies that will take into account the unique genetic profile of individual patients.

Seeking origins of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases

IBM and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) entered into a joint research agreement, code-named Blue Brain, to create a model of the neo cortical column — a set of 10,000 neurons that represents the fundamental building block of the human brain. An IBM eServer Blue Gene supercomputer, running simulations of the brain at a molecular level, will help researchers gain new insights on internal processes such as thought, perception, and memory. By using this model, scientists hope to learn more about the origins of diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.

Unlocking the mysteries of human disease

In November of 2004, IBM and a Karolinska Institute team worked to build Sweden's first IT-enabled biobank. Using this biobank, researchers study the effects of genetics and lifestyle on disease, using a clinical genomics solution. This collaboration could lead to the development of more targeted, timely cures for complex diseases.

As part of this work, researchers will examine thousands of human tissue samples along with genetic and environmental data. By understanding gene variations linked to disease or drug response, doctors can make more precise diagnoses, and drug makers can develop more targeted medications, and identify clinical trial participants more effectively.

Preventing the spread of infectious disease

The Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM), a simulation and analysis tool, is designed to help scientists and public health officials use these models to aid in understanding, and potentially preventing, the spread of infections diseases. Through the development of mathematical models, STEM provides a better understanding of epidemiology and interactions between diseases.

IBM designed STEM as a base upon which software developers and researchers can build other useful applications. The prototype code is available on alphaWorks to allow developers to explore its potential and provide guidance for its further development.

On demand healthcare ecosystem

The Interoperable Health Information Infrastructure will help to drive standards across an industry that surely needs them. IHII will improve the effectiveness of medical care by enabling doctos to make better decisions based on the integration of information among hospitals, agencies and consumers.

This use of information technology and open standards to allow the electronic flow of information within the health care industry is an essential step in reducing costs and improving quality. The IHII initiative is an expansion of IBM work already underway to enable interoperability in health care.