A computer named Gordon, after the comic superhero Flash Gordon, is being developed as an option for testing treatments of mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia.
Gordon came online in January of 2012 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), able to sustain more than 35 million input/output operations per second. With a new and unique architecture, researchers are working towards making Gordon a copy of the human brain - in terms of operation.
Most of Gordon's architecture is in flash memory - massive amounts of it - the same kind of memory in your cell phone that allows it to store and retrieve information quickly. Hence Gordon's name.
Testing Treatments for Mental Disorders
Gordon is part of the National Science Foundation's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment. In February of this year, scientists used Gordon to describe a time-dependent gene-expression process in the brain. That process could be used to direct development of treatments for mental disorders.
Although Gordon won't be used to directly mimic a human brain, he is directly copying some common brain functions while simultaneously processing huge amounts of data about DNA, RNA, protein interactions and other biological information.
This unique ability to virtualize both chemical and physical processes while analyzing it with data from multiple sources means that Gordon could soon begin finding new or alternative treatment methods and could be used to test pharmacology and other sources much faster than traditional methods of trial and error.
That would mark a huge step forward in the diagnosis and treatment - and even the prevention - of mental illnesses.
