A Perth team is using the most powerful research supercomputer in the southern hemisphere to fight world hunger.

US computational biologist Laura Boykin has travelled to Perth to lead the team trying to eradicate the spread and domination of whiteflies in East Africa, which devastates an important food crop in the region.

The whitefly is a global pest but in sub-Saharan Africa, where it originated, it causes almost 50 per cent destruction to a tuber called cassava.

The whitefly is destroying half of East Africa's main food source, and yet this insect is no bigger than the head of a pin. ( Supplied: Laura Boykin )

"Cassava is a crop that 800 million people depend on for their daily calories," Dr Boykin said.

"The whitefly is transmitting two types of viruses in East Africa ... the cassava crops are dying and farmers are having a really long hunger season."

As part of a Bill and Melinda Gates grant, Dr Boykin's team at the University of Western Australia is working on identifying the DNA of the species responsible for the obliteration of crops.

"Up until 2007 people thought that only one species of whitefly existed," she said.

"Now we know there are at least 34 confirmed species of whitefly globally.

"Our role here is to identify the enemy ... ultimately we want to be able to hand farmers cassava crops that are resistant to the whiteflies and the viruses they carry."

Dr Boykin said Perth's supercomputer Magnus was able to crunch the huge amount of data generated by trying to identify the DNA of the flies.

Supercomputer powers DNA hunt

Magnus is housed at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Technology Park in Bentley.

Pawsey executive director Neil Stringfellow said having the machine in Perth was a big coup for the city.

"Some things you can do and just do better on a supercomputer," Mr Stringfellow said.

"But some things you simply can't do without a supercomputer, without the processing power.

"Something that would previously take years, and years, and years to process can be scrunched down into a matter of minutes, hours or a few days in some cases."

Mr Stringfellow said Dr Boykin's whitefly research would not be possible without the supercomputer.

"Effectively this network is so powerful that it's about the same as 10 million times that of the average NBN network we have working from our homes," he said.

"I like to say it's an NBN in a box."

Magnus was originally built for the Square Kilometre Array telescope project, but Mr Stringfellow said other research was taking place.

"We've got people who are analysing geo-physical data - doing seismic imaging to understand where our resources are under the ground," he said.

"We've got people looking at new drug discovery ... we've even got people modelling lung simulations - the first in the world where the lung actually breathes."

Mr Stringfellow said while the work with the SKA project is ongoing Magnus, along with other supercomputers at the Pawsey centre, provide the State with an opportunity of more jobs.

"More people will need to be able to understand this world of big data and big science," he said.

"It is wonderful for the future of Perth."

Work in region, education needed to end hunger

The research Dr Boykin - who is also a TED fellow - is undertaking has been noticed by the United Nations.

She recently returned from New York where she had been chosen along with only 14 other people to present at the UN's Solutions Summit.

"The Solutions Summit identified 17 global goals," she said.

"The first one was ending poverty and number two was zero hunger.

"The work we do hits dead on with both of those."

At the summit Dr Boykin had to speak about what sort of solutions she thought would help.

"I presented two solutions," she said.

"One was that we need mobile-sequencing tents in the region so the research can be conducted there.

"The other is educating and empowering people there so they can work on problems that are happening on their soil."

She said connecting with the scientists and farmers in East Africa was the most important element.

"Eighty per cent of farmers in that area are women," she said.

"They are some of the strongest, most resilient women I've ever met.

"Having met them, knowing what they're going through, that's what gets me out of bed each morning.

"No-one should be hungry in 2015."