14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA has scored a new HPC success, although it wasn't precisely a supercomputer that it powered this time, but something a bit more accessible to the world's populace.
Without further ado, we'll come right out and report that NVIDIA and BGI, the world's largest genomics institute, have announced the “EasyGenomics” cloud service.
Based in Shenzen, China, it combines BGI's automated pipeline analysis, software and tools with an intuitive user interface that ultimately lets researchers perform next-generation sequencing (NGS) bioinformatics analysis in the cloud.
DNA sequencing data should be computed within hours instead of the days it would take a CPU-only system.
Qualified biologists should be able to experience a free trial of the service at the 2012 Bio-IT World Conference and Expo.
“This could be the year of the $1,000 genome due to rapid decline in sequencing costs. We will soon be drowning in a deluge of data from the genome sequencers,” said Sumit Gupta, senior director of the Tesla business at NVIDIA.
“BGI's EasyGenomics service uses the power of GPU computing to provide an affordable and easy-to-use method for scientists to crunch through this new genomics big data problem and get us that much closer to effective and affordable individualized treatments.”
BGI used the largest sequencing platform to date when it created the “EasyGenomics” and expects to catch the interest of biologists, bioinformaticists and physicians.
Genomic sequencing of a wide variety of life forms can be done: plants, E. Coli, giant pandas, mosquitos, etc.
“By enabling larger numbers of researchers to accelerate DNA sequencing data more easily and affordably, we hope to help facilitate the use of genomics for clinical diagnostics as a practical component of health care, as well as for complex disease research,” said Dr. Lin Fang, vice president at BGI.
“GPU acceleration enables scientists to analyze DNA sequencing data faster than was ever possible, reducing the time from five days to just five hours. Once fully deployed in the cloud, we anticipate EasyGenomics could one day revolutionize genomics research.”