This feature centers on two news updates from the Center For High Throughput Computing: The CC* (Campus Cyberinfrastructure) PI Workshop and the impacts of HTC on study of Neuroscience and Addiction.

Insights from the NSF CC* Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure

Bringing together campuses and CC* PI’s from across the United States, the February NSF CC* Workshop in Tempe, Arizona provided an opportunity for campuses to share ideas and learn what it means to become a part of the national cyberinfrastructure community. Since its launch in 2012, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) program has made accessible campus cyberinfrastructure a reality for academic institutions across the country. With over 490 grants awarded to more than 230 organizations across 51 states and territories, CC* is helping universities enhance their research capabilities and stay competitive in the fast-paced world of STEM. The PATh portions of the event focused on practical solutions to integrate The Open Science Data Federation (OSDF) into campus systems and meet the program’s data-sharing requirements. Attendees also had the chance to explore how PATh and OSDF can be used together to enhance their research projects. The program’s funding supports the development of high-performance computing and data storage systems, giving institutions the ability to handle large-scale research and data-intensive projects.

On Monday, February 3, the PATh team led sessions on the ways that campuses can interact with the OSPool. This session introduced participants to the researcher’s experience using the capacity of the OSPool, a source of computing capacity that is accessible to any researcher affiliated with a US academic institution campus representative, working with Jupyter notebooks to learn how to interact with the OSPool to gain insight and experience with the services that their campus researchers would use while conducting their research computing,

The next session led by Bockelman, focused on the OSDF, which he compared to the “Netflix for science” due to its role as a data-sharing platform for researchers. The OSDF provides institutions access to large data sets and data-sharing capabilities. In the past, some institutions faced challenges connecting to the OSDF due to the complexities of installing and configuring their infrastructure. However, this session provided participants with guidance to navigate the complexities of connecting to the OSDF.

The workshop included real-world examples of how CC* grants enable impactful research on campuses large and small. Zach Rossmiller from the University of Montana shared insights from the ICARE Lab, which is using its CC* grant to conduct research in hydrology, genomics, and geodynamics. The funding has allowed the lab to make significant efforts in stream forecasting earthquake research and other areas. Oral Roberts University and Purdue University also shared their experience working with PATh and contributing to the OSPool. The workshop served as a platform for knowledge sharing and a call to action for institutions interested in applying for CC* grants.

Using CHTC to Power Addiction Neuroscience Research

Dr. Oliver George’s lab at the University of California - San Diego studies addiction by identifying brain cell groups involved in alcohol and nicotine dependence. They’ve linked certain neurons to negative emotions in nicotine addiction and developed advanced animal models using e-cigarette vapor. These discoveries all contribute to developing an understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of drug dependence and creating new treatments by studying substances such as cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol.

To obtain addiction data, the George Lab relies on using animal models to identify the genetic markers that are associated with addiction. One of their current projects utilizes a well-established resource, CocaineBioBank, a database project containing tissues from over 1,000 rats which provides valuable material for researching addiction vulnerability. By utilizing advanced techniques like optogenetics and deep brain simulations, they are obtaining data points to uncover new therapeutic targets for treatments.

Through the use of high throughput computing using capacity from theOSPool, the lab processes large data sets, accelerating their findings and expanding the understanding of addiction. At Throughput Computing Week 2024, George discussed how he converted his raw data to the OSPool by using lists sorting the gene sequences by drug type. Over the past year, the George Lab has utilized over 819 K core hours on the OSPool.