Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Manipal) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hewlett-Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd. (HP) to start a Centre of Excellence in Pharmacogenomics at campus.

The Centre of Excellence (COE) in Pharmacogenomics is under creation by KMC Life Sciences Centre, the medical research wing of Manipal. It will research new pharmaceutical and biotechnology products, using the genomics platform. Genomic research requires analysis of large amount of clinical data, which is varied and in complex sets. Hence a HP platform has been selected by Manipal.

HP's contribution to the COE will include high performance servers, data storage devices, scientific software and professional consulting services. It will design and install wireless hotspots in the campus enabling internet access either through handheld or other mobile devices like laptops. Besides, a Network Management Lab to monitor the entire IT network is being set-up.

According to D. A. Prasanna, member, Board of Management Manipal, HP's technology will impact our courses and make engineers more technology savvy. It will also have an impacts research in KMC and help speed up breakthrough in healthcare discovery.

Dr. Ramdas Pai, president, MAHE, said "Manipal's collaboration with HP, is similar to what leading computer companies have entered into with research universities abroad. High-end computing facility in engineering and medical research will increase MAHE's lead in education.

While MAHE has chosen HP to enhance the on-campus computing experience of its students, HP will support the collaboration by deploying HP technology that will be easy to use, improve the teaching processes and help cultivate a strong learning environment at the universities," stated Balu Doraisamy, president, Hewlett-Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd.