An interesting talking point that has emerged alongside the artificial intelligence boom is the technology’s application in the health and natural sciences.

In areas such as cancer research and patient care delivery, AI factories are already showing promise as a tool to create personalized treatment courses that boost remission rates and prevent genetic transmission to offspring, according to Jessica Audette (pictured, right), head of high-performance computing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dell’s Sam Grocott and MSKCC’s Jessica Audette discuss AI’s impact in cancer treatment.

“Each year, 45,000 Americans are diagnosed with rectal cancer,” she said. “Oncologists running research on our supercomputer conducted an FDA-approved clinical trial on 42 cancer patients with rectal cancer. Today, we have a 100% success rate. Those 42 patients are in remission. Not only did our oncologists save their lives, but the lives of future generations because three of our clinical trial patients have gone on to have healthy babies.”

Audette and Sam Grocott (left), senior vice president of product marketing at Dell Technologies Inc., spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson and Dave Vellante at the recent Dell Technologies World event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how MSKCC’s advanced AI infrastructure, powered by Dell’s technology, is accelerating cancer research and delivering life-changing patient outcomes. (* Disclosure below.)

How AI factories are revolutionizing cancer research

MSKCC’s model is simple yet powerful: The tech team manages the infrastructure, allowing researchers to focus solely on the science. Dell’s AI Factory speeds up every stage — from discovery to diagnosis and treatment — while ensuring secure, on-premises data handling for sensitive medical records, according to Audette.

“The speed increases return to discovery, which increases the speed to diagnosis, which increases the speed to delivering those diagnoses to our patients and then, ultimately, treatment and cures,” she said. “Our cluster has been extremely powerful in yielding those results. Ultimately, those treatments we’re getting to our patients and yielding those types of success rates.”

For highly regulated industries such as healthcare, public cloud isn’t always the best fit. Dell’s approach ensures that AI tools are delivered in a secure, compliant environment without sacrificing speed or innovation. Importantly, these capabilities must also extend beyond elite institutions such as MSKCC so that the benefits can be replicated across industries, according to Grocott.

“We have a very strong bias to on-premises infrastructure, with the power of data and information, especially when you get to personal information, personal data and research data,” he said. “I think that’s another big opportunity that we see. Whether it’s an MSK or others, how can we leverage AI factories and technology that typically starts in the public cloud? Organizations like MSK or others in the healthcare financial services … heavily regulated environments … don’t have that opportunity to always take advantage of the cloud opportunities.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE