Project Summary/Abstract
Funds are requested for the Tampa Bay Life Sciences Computing Commons (TBLSCC), to refresh outdated
equipment and expand existing hardware (84% net increase in cores). The TBLSCC will serve as a catalyst to
consolidate life-sciences based compute capacity, resulting in fourfold expansion of the existing facility. The
TBLSCC will meet current demands, support recent NIH-funded growth in quantitative sciences, leverage the
shared expertise of computational researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC) and the University of South
Florida (USF), and enable cross-institutional collaboration not previously possible. This proposal includes 23
life sciences research groups in the Tampa Bay area, with more than 15 NIH funded research Major or Minor
Users representing over $100 million in annual NIH funding. The scientific use cases for this computational
platform include cancer, diabetes, infectious disease, genomics, radiomics, artificial intelligence, and modelling
research. Overall, 85 life sciences research groups would directly benefit from the new system.
MCC operates an 82-node, 1120-core high-performance computing (HPC) cluster. The current hardware and
software environment is end-of-life, slowing MCC research. Likewise, the USF Health Informatics Institute (HII)
uses an 80 node, 1388 core cluster at end of life. USF recently developed a 77 node/1668 core/16TB restricted
research (HIPAA-compliant) life sciences cluster (RRA) to complement their 435 node/9088 core/55 TB
general-purpose cluster. RRA includes HIPAA-compliant storage, as well as policies and procedures for
managing access for genomics and medical imaging research. We seek funds to purchase 86 nodes (6016
cores). We will leverage the existing RRA infrastructure to create the TBLSCC, a 163 node/7684 core cluster
available for MCC/USF users that can accommodate 20% annual growth in computing intensive research. This
resource will support cross-institutional collaboration, enable open science, and manage increased demands
on computational resources leveraging shared MCC/USF research needs, USF research computing expertise,
and MCC shared services computational expertise.
MCC and USF are co-located with almost $300 million per year of NIH funding. MCC is the only Florida-based
NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center with innovative research, including Integrated Mathematical
Oncology and Machine Learning. USF performs high-impact global research as a Preeminent Research
University in Florida and is eighth among American public research universities in generating new patents. The
TBLSCC will support this vibrant life science research community and provide a platform for health-focused
innovations.