Newswise — Bio-IT World, BOSTON -- April 9, 2013 -- The Computation Institute, a joint initiative of The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, announces today the launch of Globus Genomics, a unique end-to-end sequencing analysis service for genomics researchers.
Globus Genomics addresses the needs of researchers struggling with the big data challenges of next generation sequencing analysis. The service combines state-of-the-art algorithms with sophisticated data management tools, a powerful graphical workflow environment, and a cloud-based elastic computational infrastructure to enable easy scaling of sequencing analysis on demand.
"Globus Genomics has been extremely effective for our exome analysis pipelines,” says Dr. William Dobyns, professor at the University of Washington’s Center for Integrative Brain Research, and early Globus Genomics user. “The platform is easy to use, and running in a cloud-based environment has relieved our dependence on local server availability and storage space, which is especially important as our analysis needs continue to grow."
Globus Genomics integrates the data transfer capabilities of Globus Online (www.globusonline.org), the workflow tools of Galaxy, and the elastic computational infrastructure of Amazon Web Services. The result is a powerful platform for simplifying and streamlining sequencing analysis, ensuring that IT expertise is not a requirement for advanced genomics research.
Dr. Nancy Cox, section chief of genetic medicine at the University of Chicago, is using the service to scale up her team’s research. "We needed a solution that would give us flexibility to extend our analysis pipelines and apply them to very large data sets,” says Dr. Cox. “Globus Genomics has provided us with a key set of tools and scalable infrastructure to support our research needs."
“Innovations in next generation sequencing technologies must be matched with next-generation analysis approaches to overcome big-data and informatics bottlenecks,” says Paul Davé, director of user services at the Computation Institute. “We believe Globus Genomics can help and we see the compelling value it can deliver: dramatic speed-up in time-to-results through much faster analysis, as well as significant savings in time, effort, and costs.”
Key capabilities of the Globus Genomics service include: • Advanced data transfer, data sharing, and data management• A flexible workflow definition and execution environment• Unlimited scale-out capability utilizing elastic cloud computing infrastructure
"Globus Genomics has provided our lab with a powerful and flexible sequencing analysis capability,” says Dr. Kenan Onel, assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s department of pediatrics. “We needed a solution which could easily scale with our growing compute and storage needs, to help us with variant identification and further downstream annotations and interpretation of our sequence data. Globus Genomics has delivered on all of these fronts." “Our goal is to reduce time-to-results, time-to-science, time-to-therapeutics,” says Ravi Madduri, a fellow at the Computation Institute. “Globus Genomics takes care of the computational problems, so that researchers can focus on moving their analysis forward. Information technology should not be the limiting factor in advancing research and clinical treatment.”
In partnership with the Galaxy team, Globus Genomics extends the workflow system with an enhanced set of analysis tools and adds best-practice pipelines. This enables researchers to run an integrated, cost-effective solution that leverages the elastic capabilities of Amazon Web Services. The Globus team also provides bioinformatics consulting, project management, and technical support services to support Globus Genomics deployment and use. More information is available at globus.org/genomics.
About the Computation InstituteThe Computation Institute (CI), a joint institute between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, is an intellectual nexus for scientists and scholars pursuing multi-disciplinary research and is a resource center for developing and applying innovative computational approaches. Globus Genomics is part of the broader Globus family of research data management solutions developed at the CI to support the needs of non-profit researchers. Development of Globus Genomics is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy.
Contact:Laurel Wamsley773-702-4546[email protected]
RSS