PetaGene’s PetaSuite compression software and cloud-computing solutions speed up data transfers and reduce storage costs for research projects involving genomics data.
We are pleased to announce that Astrazeneca has selected PetaSuite software to compress the genomics data sets for AstraZeneca’s Centre for Genomics Research (CGR). Using genomics data and state-of-the-art methods for genomic analysis, the CGR investigates underlying genetic causes of disease and aims to integrate genomics across the company’s drug discovery platform. PetaSuite accelerates data transfers for cloud computing and reduces storage costs for any research project involving genomics data.
“Using genomic data for biopharmaceutical targets discovery requires large cohorts with massive multi-petabyte data sets. The time required to transfer these data from sequencers to compute clusters as well as the cost of storage can cripple these large initiatives,” said Vaughan Wittorff, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of PetaGene. “PetaSuite addresses the challenges caused by growing volumes of genomics data and achieves up to 10x reductions in storage costs and transfer times, while adhering to the industry-standard BAM and FASTQ genomics file formats.”
More than 200,000 files processed
To date, AstraZeneca’s CGR has processed more than 200,000 genomics datasets, generating over a petabyte of data. One petabyte of data is equivalent to streaming HD movies for 40 years without a break. At this volume of data, problems in processing time, data transfers and storage size can impact the ability to deliver at scale. PetaGene’s compression software will enable the CGR to compress over 200,000 BAM files in a 24-hour period and will add the compressed data to tiered cloud storage.
Average data size reduction of 76%
“AstraZeneca’s Centre for Genomics Research has the bold ambition to analyse up to two million genomes by 2026. Minimizing the storage footprint and transfer time of genome data while maximizing data access and compute processing is a necessity to enable us to achieve our ambition.” said Slavé Petrovski, Vice President and Head of Genome Analytics and Bioinformatics, Discovery Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca.
PetaSuite will enable the CGR to achieve an average data reduction of 76% or a 4x expansion of storage capacity. PetaGene’s transparent, lossless compression of files reduces transfer times to less than a quarter, and PetaGene’s software allows unmodified analysis tools to run more quickly.
PetaSuite users typically make it an intrinsic part of their cloud or locally hosted analysis pipeline. As data is processed, it is compressed ready for use in the next stage of analysis without it needing to be decompressed later. PetaSuite Cloud Edition allows for the seamless integration of an organization’s own tools and pipelines in the cloud or local environment of their choosing.
Read more
Click here to read the far-reaching GenomeWeb article of 31st October 2019 about PetaGene which includes this news about AstraZeneca (requires premium subscription).