Published on 08-Nov-2007
Validated on 11 Mar 2013
Customer:
National Geographic Society
Industry:
Education, Life Sciences
Deployment country:
United States
Solution:
Business-to-Consumer, Data Warehouse, Information Integration, Innovation that matters, Learning and Training, Transforming Business
Overview
Analyzing massive amounts of data from around the world to trace the migration of humanity required technology as daunting as the idea behind the study.
Business need:
The National Geographic Society (NGS) launched the Genographic Project, a leading-edge five-year worldwide scientific study to trace the migration of humanity across the planet over the millennia.
Solution:
National Geographic Society and IBM formed a team to create and deploy multiple solutions, enabling the Genographic Project to gather, manage, secure, store and analyze hundreds of thousands of genetic samples from all over the world.
Benefits:
• Reveals mankind’s migratory history to better understand the connections and differences that make up the human species
• Integrates information technology, biological sciences, and humanity’s collective will—to understand common roots
Case Study
The National Geographic Society traces human history through genetic sampling.
Overview
National Geographic Society
Washington, DC, USA
vwww.ibm.com/genographic
www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic
Industry
• Education, Life Sciences
Hardware
• IBM DB2
• IBM DB2 Personal
• IBM DB2 UDB Enterprise Edition
• IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
• IBM WebSphere on Linux
• IBM WebSphere MQ
Analyzing massive amounts of data from around the world to trace the migration of humanity across the planet required technology as daunting as the idea behind the study.
Challenge
The National Geographic Society (NGS) launched the Genographic Project, a leading-edge five-year worldwide scientific study to trace the migration of humanity across the planet over the millennia. First, NGS connected with leading geneticists from around the globe whose goal was to gather the huge sum of 100,000 genetic samples. Then they invited the public to participate by offering for purchase a kit that enabled them to anonymously provide their own DNA sample to the study and learn about their own ancient migratory history. Then they faced the daunting challenge of analyzing the massive amounts of data that resulted from the collection of all of this DNA.
Solution
National Geographic Society and IBM formed a team composed of IT experts, researchers, scientists, an advisory board, and marketing, community relations and communications personnel. Together they created and deployed multiple solutions, enabling the Genographic Project to gather, manage, secure, store and analyze hundreds of thousands of genetic samples from all over the world. The resulting public database now houses over 210,000 DNA samples—one of the largest collections of human population genetic information ever assembled and serves as an unprecedented resource for geneticists, historians and anthropologists.
Benefits
• Reveals mankind’s migratory history to better understand the connections and differences that make up the human species
• Integrates information technology, biological sciences, and humanity’s collective will—to understand common roots
For more information
Please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner.
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software:
WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, DB2 Enterprise Server Edition
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2007 IBM Corporation Global Solutions, Industry Marketing 294 Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America 10-07 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DB2 and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. This case study illustrates how one IBM customer uses IBM products. There is no guarantee of comparable results. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.