TurboGenomics today announced the release of a new version of TurboBLAST, a Java-based application that runs on the Mac and other platforms. TurboBLAST improves the performance of Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), a sequence comparison tool developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. BLAST is used in gene research and the study of proteins.
TurboBLAST takes a page from SETI@Home and other similar projects — it is basically an accelerated, parallel implementation of BLAST. The software enables researchers to partition and distribute between multiple computers the complex data needed to study gene and protein structures. The software sports features like fault tolerance, dynamic load balancing, worker specialization, and more.
Because it’s Java-based, TurboBLAST can run on Macs, PCs and Linux boxes, helping researchers to maximize the performance potential of their computer networks regardless of platform. It’s also scalable — if researchers want more speed, all they have to do is add more machines, said TurboGenomics. The company reported an initial benchmark: 11 Linux-equipped PCs were able to reduce a month-long BLAST run to two days using TurboBLAST.
Users interested in attaining TurboBLAST for their labs are encouraged to visit TurboGenomics’ Web site, e-mail them or call 203.974.0470 x222 for more information.