IBM Partners With New York Genome Center On Cancer Treatment

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IBM’s Watson technology will now be on the hunt for new cancer treatments following a partnership with the New York Genome Center. The work will focus on treatment alternatives for brain cancer patients, and is backed by a $55 million investment by the state in the New York Genome Center and a $50 million Buffalo Billion investment in the University at Buffalo high performance computing center.

The NY Genomic Medicine Network seeks to capture the economic and medical gains in the emerging field of genomic medicine for New York State and to develop Upstate New York as a national center for genomic research and jobs. This network links the medical community in New York City with the computational infrastructure at the University at Buffalo and the research community at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Five companies focused on genomic medicine have already committed to either moving to Buffalo or expanding in the area, many at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. In addition to the agreement with the New York Genome Center, IBM is also working with New York State to create the Buffalo Information Technologies Innovation and Commercialization Hub. New York will commit an additional $55 million, which includes $25 million to establish an open innovation facility and $30 million to purchase IT equipment and software to be used at the new facility. The Hub will be owned by New York State with IBM as the first anchor tenant and made available to all IT units at all state agencies. The facility will open in early 2015 in downtown Buffalo.

“This collaboration between the New York Genome Center and IBM will help make the region a new center for the fast growing bio-tech industry,” Governor Cuomo said.