Researchers Outline in Science How Brain Research Makes New Demands on Supercomputing

"Understanding the brain in all its complexity requires insights from multiple scales - from genomics, cells and synapses to the whole-organ level. This means working with large amounts of data, and supercomputing is becoming an indispensable tool to tackle the brain," says Katrin Amunts, Scientific Director of the Human Brain Project (HBP), Director of the C. and O. Vogt-Institute of Brain Research, Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf and Director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) at Research Centre Jülich.

"It's an exciting time in supercomputing," says Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre and leader of supercomputing in the Human Brain Project. "We get a lot of new requests from researchers of the neuroscience community that need powerful computing to tackle the brain's complexity. In response, we are developing new tools tailored to investigating the brain."

The human brain contains around 86 billion neurons that form trillions of contact points. Imaging an entire brain at cellular resolutions produces data in the range of several Petabytes; electron microscopy of a whole brain would amount to more than one Exabyte of data. "Brain research, medicine and information technologies face challenges that can only be addressed by joining the forces of all three domains," says Amunts.

In Europe, the big data challenge of neuroscience is addressed by the Human Brain Project’s research infrastructure EBRAINS. It provides a range of tools, data-, and compute-services to brain researchers. This includes access to supercomputing systems via the Fenix federated Infrastructure, which has been set up by Europe’s leading Supercomputing Centres as part of the Human Brain Project and will serve communities beyond brain research.

Within the next five years, Europe is aiming to deploy its first two exascale supercomputers. They will be acquired by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), a joint initiative between the EU, European countries and private partners. "The brain research community stands ready to use these exascale systems," says Amunts.

Katrin Amunts, Thomas Lippert.
Brain research challenges supercomputing.
Science, 2021. doi: 10.1126/science.abl8519

Most Popular Now

Digital ECGs at Barts Health: A High-Imp…

Opinion Article by Dr Krishnaraj Sinhji Rathod, consultant in interventional cardiology, Barts Health NHS Trust. Picture the moment. A patient in an ambulance, enroute to hospital with new chest pain. Paramedics...

Study Sheds Light on Hurdles Faced in Tr…

Implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into NHS hospitals is far harder than initially anticipated, with complications around governance, contracts, data collection, harmonisation with old IT systems, finding the right AI tools...

Using Deep Learning for Precision Cancer…

Altuna Akalin and his team at the Max Delbrück Center have developed a new tool to more precisely guide cancer treatment. Described in a paper published in Nature Communications, the...

New AI Approach Paves Way for Smarter T-…

Researchers have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle one of the most complex challenges in immunology: predicting how T cells recognize and respond to specific peptide antigens...

Study Used AI Models to Improve Predicti…

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex condition marked by a gradual decline in kidney function, which can ultimately progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Globally, the prevalence of the...

AI-Powered CRISPR could Lead to Faster G…

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to help scientists better plan gene-editing experiments. The technology, CRISPR-GPT, acts as a gene-editing “copilot” supported by AI to help...

Groundbreaking AI Aims to Speed Lifesavi…

To solve a problem, we have to see it clearly. Whether it’s an infection by a novel virus or memory-stealing plaques forming in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, visualizing disease processes...

AI Spots Hidden Signs of Depression in S…

Depression is one of the most common mental health challenges, but its early signs are often overlooked. It is often linked to reduced facial expressivity. However, whether mild depression or...