NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – SAIC-Frederick and Geospiza today announced a collaboration to better manage the mountains of data resulting from next-generation sequencing platforms.
Under the collaboration, the two firms will integrate Geospiza's GeneSifter Lab Edition product for data acquisition and analysis with Pacific Biosciences' PacBio RS single-molecule real-time third-generation platform in order to "potentially accelerate cancer research and help develop new treatments," Geospiza said in a statement.
According to Geospiza, a Seattle-based software development firm, second-generation sequencing technology can produce as much as 3 billion sequences in just two days. While this can advance researchers' understanding of the genetic basis of cancer, it also poses challenges in trying to manage the huge volume of data and correlating it with patient information.
Geospiza and SAIC-Frederick hope to address this by using GeneSifter interfaces already in SAIC-Frederick's lab to create custom workflows and data analysis that are unique to PacBio's technology, and by providing enhancements for systems analysis and automation.
"The result will provide researchers with a productive data management system tailored to their needs," Geospiza said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SAIC-Frederick is a contractor for the National Cancer Institute's laboratories in Frederick, Md. It is facilitating the partnership as part of NCI's Advanced Technology Partnership Initiative, aimed at accelerating the development of new cancer treatments while reducing the costs.