Connection Between Epigenome, Selective Mutability, Evolution, and Human Disease
Li, Harris et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere propose a "connection between the epigenome, selective mutability, evolution, and human disease" based on the findings of their study on associations of structural mutability with germline DNA methylation and with non-allelic homologous recombination mediated by low-copy repeats. "Combined evidence from four human sperm methylome maps, human genome evolution, structural polymorphisms in the human population, and previous genomic and disease studies consistently points to a strong association of germline hypomethylation and genomic instability," the Baylor-led team writes.
Making the Case for Cloud Computing & Genomics
Lincoln Stein has built a case for cloud computing as the next generation informatics ecosystem for next-gen sequencing. In his article published in Genome Biology this week entitled "The case for cloud computing in genome informatics," Stein outlines the old song about how researchers must wake up to the reality that the ability of labs to deal with the amount of data created by the ever-increasing throughput of next-generation sequencing platforms will soon no longer be able to cut the mustard.
Stein walks the reader through an nice explanation of what exactly cloud computing is, the benefits of using a compute solution that grows and shrinks as needed, and makes an attempt at tackling the question of the cloud's economic viability when compared to purchasing and managing local compute resources.
The take away is that Moore's Law and its effect on sequencing technology will soon force researchers to analyze their mountains of sequencing data in a paradigm where the software comes to the data rather than the current, and opposite, approach. Stein says that this means now more than ever, cloud computing is a viable and attractive option.
Stein's vision for a informatics ecosystem with the cloud:
