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Harnessing cloud computing with Galaxy Cloud

Nature Biotechnology volume 29, pages 972–974 (2011)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

Continuing evolution of DNA sequencing has transformed modern biology. Lower sequencing costs coupled with novel sequencing-based assays have led to rapid adoption of next-generation sequencing across diverse areas of life sciences research1,2,3,4. Sequencing has moved out of the genome centers into core facilities and individual laboratories where any investigator can access it for modest and progressively declining cost. Although easy to generate in tremendous quantities, sequence data are still difficult to manage and analyze. Sophisticated informatics techniques and supporting infrastructure are needed to make sense of even conceptually simple sequencing experiments, let alone the more complex analysis techniques being developed. The most pressing challenge facing the sequencing community today is providing the informatics infrastructure and accessible analysis methods needed to make it possible for all investigators to realize the power of high-throughput sequencing to advance their research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to J. Beiler for coordinating sample collection, to clinical nurses from Penn State College of Medicine's Pediatric Clinical Research Office for collecting the samples and to volunteers for donating the samples. Efforts of the Galaxy Team (E.A., D.B., D. Blankenberg, N.C., J. Goecks, G. Von Kuster, R. Lazarus, K. Li & K. Vincent) were instrumental for making this work happen. This work was funded by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants HG005133 and HG005542 to J.T. and A.N., US National Science Foundation grant DBI 0543285 and NIH grant HG004909 to A.N. and J.T., and NIH grant GM07226405S2 to K.D.M. Additional funding is provided, in part, under a grant with the Pennsylvania Department of Health using Tobacco Settlement Funds. The Department specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biology and Mathematics & Computer Science, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Enis Afgan, Dannon Baker & James Taylor

  2. Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Nate Coraor, Hiroki Goto, Kateryna D Makova & Anton Nekrutenko

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ian M Paul

Authors
  1. Enis Afgan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kateryna D Makova, Anton Nekrutenko or James Taylor.

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Harnessing cloud-computing for biomedical research with Galaxy Cloud (PDF 229 kb)

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Afgan, E., Baker, D., Coraor, N. et al. Harnessing cloud computing with Galaxy Cloud. Nat Biotechnol 29, 972–974 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2028

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