Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) and the University of
Notre Dame have received up to $1.6 million in funding from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a system of computers and software for the
Vector Ecology and Control Network (VECNet), an international consortium to eradicate
malaria. The new VECNet Cyber-Infrastructure Project (CI) will support VECNet’s
effort to unite research, industrial and public policy efforts to attack one of
the worst diseases in the developing world in more effective, economical ways.
“VECNet is about bringing order out of chaos,” says Tom
Burkot, VECNet’s principal investigator and professor and tropical leader at
James Cook University, Australia. “The challenge we have is that we’re trying
to control and eliminate malaria in a world in which, for example, there are 40
or 50 dominant mosquito species that are important for its spread.” The CI
project, he adds, is intended to decrease the complexity of engaging in the
problem so that malaria researchers, national malaria control officials,
product developers, and policy makers can all contribute to solutions.