CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In 2001, the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics announced that after 10 years of work at a cost of some $400 million, they had completed a draft sequence of the human genome. Today, sequencing a human genome is something that a single researcher can do in a couple of weeks for less than $10,000.
Since 2002, the rate at which genomes can be sequenced has been doubling every four months or so, whereas computing power doubles only every 18 months. Without the advent of new analytic tools, biologists' ability to generate genomic data will soon outstrip their ability to do anything useful with it.
In the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology, MIT and Harvard University researchers describe a new algorithm that drastically reduces the time it takes to find a particular gene sequence in a database of genomes. Moreover, the more genomes it's searching, the greater the speedup it affords, so its advantages will only compound as more data is generated.
In some sense, this is a data-compression algorithm like the one that allows computer users to compress data files into smaller zip files. "You have all this data, and clearly, if you want to store it, what people would naturally do is compress it," says Bonnie Berger, a professor of applied math and computer science at MIT and senior author on the paper. "The problem is that eventually you have to look at it, so you have to decompress it to look at it. But our insight is that if you compress the data in the right way, then you can do your analysis directly on the compressed data. And that increases the speed while maintaining the accuracy of the analyses."
Exploiting redundancy
The researchers' compression scheme exploits the fact that evolution is stingy with good designs. There's a great deal of overlap in the genomes of closely related species, and some overlap even in the genomes of distantly related species: That's why experiments pe
'/>"/>
| Contact: Caroline McCall, MIT Media Relations cmccall5@mit.edu Massachusetts Institute of Technology Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Searching for the origin of muscles
2. EU project: Searching for exotics in the shrimp nets
3. The genomics symposium to boost the further development of cancer research
4. ACRG and BGI report findings from genomics research on recurrent hepatitis B virus integration
5. Researchers announce GenomeSpace environment to connect genomic tools
6. 2012 ACMG Foundation/Signature Genomic Laboratories Travel Award winner announced
7. In search for a vaccine, IU biologist receives $2.3 million to explore chlamydia genomics
8. BGI, University of Helsinki and Wuhan University sign a MOU concerning cooperation on genomics
9. SDSCs big data expertise aiding genomics research
10. Palladium-gold nanoparticles clean TCE a billion times faster than iron filings
11. Exome sequencing gives cheaper, faster diagnosis in heterogeneous disease
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |