Advancing Life Science Discoveries

spinTwo and VAST Data empower scientists to focus on groundbreaking research by minimizing data management complexities.

Industry Government

Use Case HPC & AI

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Overview

In the highly competitive field of life sciences and drug discovery, cutting-edge infrastructure is key to accelerating breakthroughs. spinTwo and VAST Data empower scientists to focus on groundbreaking research by minimizing data management complexities. This enables faster delivery of new treatments and cures to diseases for the patients who need them.

spinTwo also offers a comprehensive suite of services, from building and maintaining custom HPC systems to developing efficient AI models and delivering cutting-edge data analysis. By employing former scientists with strong technical backgrounds, spinTwo’s team possesses a deep understanding of the computing requirements of the scientific community, enabling them to build and maintain infrastructure that powers scientific breakthroughs.

Hugo Hernandez, co-founder of spinTwo who oversees scientific computing infrastructures, explained, “We are not just providing a solution from an infrastructure perspective. We go further by working closely with scientists on how to use the infrastructure, how to use different environments to push the boundaries of scientific discovery.”

Background

One spinTwo customer required a robust computing infrastructure to handle billions of small files while integrating seamlessly with their existing HPC systems—crucial for accelerating research in immune analysis and drug discovery. In one experiment, scientists captured 1.4 billion images of mice brains to study their neurological activity. Managing and processing this data was a monumental challenge. “This analysis is not possible if we don’t have the right infrastructure. The right infrastructure includes not only the computing power but also, most importantly, the right file system. A file system that allows us to deal with a lot of very small files, and by a lot, I mean billions of files,” commented Hernandez.

After evaluating multiple options capable of integrating with traditional HPC systems, spinTwo selected VAST Data on behalf of their customer. VAST Data’s architecture stood out for its ability to handle massive amounts of small files while delivering high performance and providing flexible data access. “We found that traditional parallel file systems couldn’t handle the large number of small files and performance requirements we needed,” said Hernandez. “With VAST Data, not only did we overcome these limitations, but we also gained a file system that could present data not only to HPC systems but also to high-performance workstations and critical servers controlling scientific instrumentation and experiments.”

The results transformed their research capabilities. Scientists accessed their data faster than ever before. In one notable example, a data analysis project estimated to take seven years using traditional computational techniques was completed in just a few weeks with the optimized infrastructure integrating VAST Data as a core element of their HPC cluster.

Outcome

By leveraging VAST’s infrastructure, the customer significantly improved its data processing speed and ability to scale complex life sciences research. The system allows scientists to focus on their research, free from the burden of data management and infrastructure logistics.

Hernandez summed up the impact: “We helped our customer accelerate science. With VAST Data, we process large datasets much faster, allowing scientists to spend more time on research rather than waiting for data to process. What used to take years, can now be completed in weeks, and we’re working to reduce that to hours.”

spinTwo integrated the VAST Data Platform into a scalable, future-proof system that will continue to support all AI and ML initiatives, large-scale data analytics, and long-term scientific projects. As Hernandez put it, “VAST is an important component of the infrastructure we built for our customer, particularly for data analytics and scientific operations.”

In the next phase, spinTwo plans to expand VAST Data's capabilities to more scientific research projects with their customers, including efforts around artificial intelligence and machine learning to support enhanced analysis and data management. As Hernandez explained, “We have laid out the infrastructure foundation required to accelerate discoveries in life sciences.”

The collaboration between spinTwo and VAST Data transforms scientific research. By providing a scalable, high-performance data platform, VAST has enabled scientists to accelerate their research, allowing for quicker analysis and more impactful discoveries in life sciences.

We helped our government customer accelerate science. With VAST Data, we process large datasets much faster, allowing government scientists to spend more time on research rather than waiting for data to process. What used to take years, can now be completed in weeks, and we’re working to reduce that to hours.

Hugo R Hernandez

Co-Founder, spinTwo