Division of Computational Bioscience Scientific Computing Facility

计算生物科学部(DCB)科学计算设施(SCF)与DCB工作人员和他们的NIH调查人员合作，建立和提供一个多样化但强大的科学计算系统。该系统提供合作所需的基础设施，同时遵守所有安全、保密和完整性要求，特别是与存储PII和其他敏感数据有关的要求。通过常见的流畅软件和硬件更新，协作者可以不间断地工作。专家工作人员能够提供集中的支持和建议，以便能够最大限度地利用资源来支持该部门的内部研究计划。 该设施由低可用性机房组成，机房内有用于科学计算的各种硬件，以及大约200台持续运行的服务器，这些服务器提供计算节点和数据存储。有单独的机架用于存储和处理敏感信息，如个人健康信息和赠款信息，并有适当的额外保护层。DCB还从信息技术中心(CIT)的计算机系统服务司(DCS)租用空间，用于高可用性生产系统，如支持唾液蛋白质组维基的系统。 跨所有计算系统的通用联合环境使DCB员工能够快速构建他们在整个协作生命周期中所需的数据分析工具。通用文件系统、统一身份验证、系统管理和其他系统协调功能完全集成到包含各种支持软件的基础架构中。商品硬件、自由软件和商业软件相结合，提供高效和可持续的解决方案。 工作人员代表DCB执行科学计算系统日常运营所需的许多常见安全、维护、备份和报告任务。特别是，在DCB的计算设施上管理联邦授权的认证和认可流程，否则将给DCB开发人员和调查人员及其合作者带来沉重负担。协作项目结束后，工作人员与IC合作，视情况将系统迁移到IC或CIT数据中心内的空间。 设施工作人员还在改进各种Linux分发的定制版本，以符合NIH计算机配置策略，包括关于用户帐户生命周期、用户帐户密码和事件响应团队(IRT)扫描的策略。这种“Lab Linux”配置利用了NIH现有的IT基础设施，从而使NIH实验室工作人员可以轻松地使用和维护该系统。 许多著名的研究人员、小组和科学领袖都报告说，缺乏熟练的专业计算专家来帮助在整个NIH运行类似的资源。实验室倾向于依赖在他们的临时工作人员中找到的附带专业知识。由于国家卫生研究院的项目需要进行大量的数据处理，该设施为DCB提供了必要的专业知识。此外，由于DCB自己的设施的成功，DCB收到了越来越多来自IC的请求，要求直接启动和支持基于实验室的科学计算基础设施。 2015年，支持的协作包括： 。人类唾液蛋白质目录，与NIDCR，支持唾液蛋白质组社区。 。分子图书馆计划(MLP)，NIH共同基金的一部分，用于开发通用分析报告系统(CARS)。 。分子结构测定(NIDDK、NIDCR、NCI、NHLBI)。 。分子建模中心的MMIGNET计划作为一个整体支持NIH。 。具有NCI和NIAID的微阵列数据库系统(MAdb)。 。遗传协会数据库，与NIA合作，对复杂疾病和障碍的人类遗传关联研究进行存档。 。未诊断疾病计划门户(ORDR、NHGRI、CC)使来自世界各地的专家能够帮助NIH诊断罕见疾病。 。投资组合分析和投资组合可视化资源，支持整个NIH的许多小组，包括OD、CSR和NIGMS。 。与NHLBI合作设计和执行一个程序，该程序计算数十亿个SNP-基因表达关联测试，以努力发现表达-单核苷酸多态，eSNPs。到目前为止的努力正在产生比之前的努力快20倍的速度。 。与NCI和NCI资助的一个财团的联合项目，实施分析管道，并提供必要的生物信息学工具，用于转录组分析和对来自下一代测序的RNA-seq/exon捕获数据进行生物学解释。 。与NHLBI和其他IC的联合项目，提供计算系统管理支持，并为NIH制定政策和标准。

The Division of Computational Bioscience (DCB) Scientific Computing Facility (SCF) collaborates with DCB staff and their NIH investigators to build and provide a diverse but robust scientific computing system. This system provides the infrastructure needed by the collaborations at the same time as complying with all security, confidentiality and integrity requirements, especially those concerned with storing PII and other sensitive data. With common smooth software and hardware refreshes, collaborators are allowed to work uninterrupted. Expert staff are able to provide centralised support and advice to enable the best use of resources in support of the Division's Intramural Research Program. The Facility comprises of low availability equipment rooms containing a wide range of hardware for scientific computing with approximately 200 continuously running servers, which provide compute nodes and data storage. There are separate racks for machines used for storing and processing sensitive information, such as personal health information and grant information, with appropriate extra layers of protection. DCB also rents space from the Division of Computer System Services (DCSS) of the Center for Information Technology (CIT) for high availability production systems, such as those supporting the Salivary Proteome Wiki. A common and federated environment across all computational systems, enables DCB staff to quickly build the data analysis tools they need throughout the lifetime of a collaboration. Common file systems, unified authentication, system management, and other system coordinating features are fully integrated into an infrastructure containing the variety of supporting software. Commodity hardware, free software and commercial software are integrated to provide efficient and sustainable solutions. Staff perform the many common security, maintenance, backup and reporting tasks that are required for the day to day operation of scientific computational systems on behalf of DCB. In particular, managing the Federally mandated Certification and Accreditation process on DCB's Computational Facility that would otherwise be a significant burden to DCB developers and investigators as well as their collaborators. When an collaborative project is concluded, staff work with the ICs to relocate systems to space within the ICs or the CIT Data Center as appropriate. Facility staff are also refining customised versions of various Linux distributions to comply with NIH computer configuration policies, including the policies on user account life-cycle, user account passwords, and Incident Response Team (IRT) scanning. This "Lab Linux" configuration leverages the existing IT infrastructure at NIH, thereby making it easy for NIH laboratory staff to use and maintain the system. Many prominent investigators panels and science leaders have reported a lack of skilled professional computational experts to help with running similar resources across NIH. Laboratories tend to rely on the incidental expertise found among their, often temporary, staff. With the large amounts of data processing that is required for projects at NIH, the Facility provides the necessary expertise to DCB. Moreover, DCB is receiving an increasing number of requests from across the ICs to jump-start and support laboratory-based scientific computing infrastructures directly because of the success of DCB's own Facility. In 2015, supported collaborations include: . The Human Salivary Protein Catalog, with NIDCR, supporting the Salivary Proteome community. . Molecular Libraries Program (MLP), part of the NIH Common Fund, to develop the Common Assay Reporting System (CARS). . Molecular Structure Determination (NIDDK, NIDCR, NCI, NHLBI). . The Center for Molecular Modeling's MMIGNET programme supporting NIH as a whole. . Microarray Database System (mAdb) with NCI and NIAID. . The Genetic Association Database archive of human genetic association studies of complex diseases and disorders, in collaboration with NIA. . Undiagnosed Diseases Program Portal (ORDR, NHGRI, CC) enabling experts from across the world help NIH to diagnose rare diseases. . Portfolio analysis and portfolio visualization resources supporting many groups throughout NIH, including OD, CSR and NIGMS. . A collaborative effort with NHLBI to design and execute a program which computes billions of SNP-gene expression association tests, in an effort to find expression - single nucleotide polymorphisms, eSNPs. Efforts so far are producing a 20-fold speed up over previous efforts. . A joint project, with NCI and a NCI-funded consortium, implementing an analysis pipeline and providing the necessary bioinformatics tools for transcriptome analysis and biological interpretation of RNA-seq/Exon capture data from next generation sequencing. . A joint project with NHLBI and other ICs to provide a nexus of computational system administration support and set policies and standards for NIH.