tl;dr: The Wellcome Sanger Institute uses the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA to decode DNA at an unprecedented scale, driving discoveries in health and biodiversity.
The blueprint of every living thing on Earth is written in its DNA. Understanding this genetic code holds the key to solving some of humanity’s greatest challenges.
Working with Dell and using the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute are decoding life at a scale once thought impossible.
This vital work provides the global scientific community with a library of knowledge, offering insights into human health, evolution and the rich biodiversity of our planet.
Decoding the building blocks of life with AI
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world leader in genome research that delivers insights into human, evolutionary and pathogen biology. It aims to sequence 70,000 species in the British and Irish Isles as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project. It has also contributed over 70 percent of the genomes to the global Earth BioGenome Project, which seeks to sequence and catalog the genetic blueprints of 1.5 million species by 2032.
As genome sequencing becomes more complex and data requirements continue to grow, on-premises computational power and AI systems are essential for scalability and efficiency.
To support its mission, the Institute has expanded its work with Dell to create an on-premises foundation that drives sequencing and assembly of genomes with unparalleled precision and speed.
Driving scientific discovery with Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA
Dell and the Wellcome Sanger Institute have a long-standing history of collaboration. The Institute has relied on Dell’s HPC solutions for years to power its groundbreaking research, extending that relationship to the present and using the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA.
The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade approach designed to simplify and accelerate the adoption of AI across organizations. Using these solutions, including Dell PowerEdge XE servers, the Sanger Institute optimized its high-performance computing (HPC) platforms for AI to scale and speed up the science of species mapping.
The results:
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- Breaking impossible boundaries: The Institute can now tackle species with massive genomic complexity—like mistletoe, which has a genome 30 times larger than that of humans—unlocking research opportunities once considered out of reach.
- Unparalleled efficiency: With its advanced Dell AI infrastructure, the Sanger Institute can now sequence and assemble a genome every seven hours—a dramatic leap from the previous pace of three genomes over ten years.
- Streamlined data management: Managing over 100 petabytes of curated genetic sequence data, the Institute’s on-premises Dell AI infrastructure helps accelerate iteration cycles and eliminates latency. This agility enables the Sanger Institute to meet current demands and collaborate with external national systems, such as the UK’s AI infrastructure, when scaling is required.
- Transformative advancements in AI-powered compute: The Sanger Institute is exploring generative genomic models—AI tools trained on genetic data—to automatically improve lab protocols and clean up sequencing data in near real-time. This means researchers can trust their data more, iterate faster and push the boundaries of discovery with greater confidence.
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Powering the future of genomics
Dell is committed to providing technology that drives human progress. Our collaboration with the Wellcome Sanger Institute is a powerful example. By providing the AI foundation for its work, we help unlock secrets hidden in DNA. These discoveries support vital conservation strategies, aid breeding efforts for at-risk species, and help combat invasive species that threaten ecosystems.
And the work at the Institute will have a global impact. The data it produces is published openly for the scientific community, empowering researchers worldwide, to make their own discoveries.
Together, Dell and the Sanger Institute are working to build a future where actions and impacts are better understood.
You can find more information on how Dell, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Dell Technologies titanium partner, Boxxe, are working together to improve our understanding of life on Earth here and here.
