The Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR), which works to solve the restrictions that they face during the COVID-19 pandemic due to conventional computational infrastructure, introduced its first high-performance computer facilities in its National Virology (NIV) in Pune.
The acquisition of the most modern computing cluster named Nakshatra comes soon after India showed an increase in Covid-19 cases, although in the last two days the number of active cases was slightly immersed.
ICMR-NIV PUNE NAVEEN Kumar noted that several new pathogens and variants of Covid were mentioned. “It is necessary to upgrade to stay forward in increasing the capacity of public health research,” he said.
Upgrade genomic research
Kumar, which attributed the emergence of new pathogens to increased globalization, global warming and deforestation, said its center is performing extensive sequential analysis using multiple strains that used weeks.
“Now we can do the same work in 24 to 48 hours. It has increased our country’s ability for genomic supervision, which will help us in pandemic readiness,” he said.
The NAKHhatra device allows improved storage and optimizes the gas pipeline for genomic research, which ensures better capacity of viral genomic supervision and national readiness for each future pandemic. The device promotes faster analysis of complex genomic data, which allows scientists to detect new threats of disease earlier, more efficiently to respond to outbreaks and accelerate the vaccine against AI and the development of drugs.
Central data storage
The device has developed as part of the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PMABHIM) and forms the cornerstone of the new project, called a high -performance new generation computing sequence.
Initially, the PUNE will serve five ICMR institutes across the country and act as a central storage for data sequencing.
Sarah Cherian, head of the Bioinformatics and Data Management Group group and the main investigator of the project, provided a comprehensive overview of the cluster’s abilities and its role in genomic research. She said that the computational cluster is adapted to support comprehensive work flows of bioinformatics, including the sequencing of the new generation, transcriptomics, phylogenetics, metagenomics and structural bioinformatics.
The impact of genomic monitoring
NIV PUNE has already played a key role in driving the Pandemie Covid-19. Previously significant genetic changes in the virus have triggered the second and third wave and ongoing genomic monitoring and analysis helped in timely detection of variants of interest and concerns.
“This helped prepare the way for implementing the strengthening dose of vaccination for Covid,” the Institute said.
Published – June 19, 2025 21:36
