NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Hitachi Asia and Data Storage Institute today announced an extension of a collaboration to develop a data compression technique in order to manage the ever-growing amount of genomic sequencing data.
Researchers at DSI, a research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), are studying how sequencing data is being optimized by researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore, also an A*STAR institute. Building on their earlier work, Hitachi and DSI will now seek to address the shortfalls identified in the current data storage models by designing a genome data compression method that reduces data storage capacity needs, quickens compression speeds, and lower storage costs, they said.
In their earlier collaboration Hitachi and DSI discovered patterns of typical genome data transaction "that would enable current storage systems to function optimally," they said.
"By raising compression capacity, we can envision smaller genome sequencing facilities to handle petabytes of data in a year compared to current terabytes levels which are mostly restricted to large genome sequencing centers due to storage limitations," DSI Executive Director Pantelis Alexopoulos said in a statement.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.