Launching genomics into the cloud: deployment of Mercury, a next generation sequence analysis pipeline.

TitleLaunching genomics into the cloud: deployment of Mercury, a next generation sequence analysis pipeline.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsReid, JG, Carroll, A, Veeraraghavan, N, Dahdouli, M, Sundquist, A, English, A, Bainbridge, M, White, S, Salerno, W, Buhay, C, Yu, F, Muzny, D, Daly, R, Duyk, G, Gibbs, RA, Boerwinkle, E
JournalBMC Bioinformatics
Volume15
Pagination30
Date Published2014 Jan 29
ISSN1471-2105
KeywordsGenome, Genomics, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, Internet, Software
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Massively parallel DNA sequencing generates staggering amounts of data. Decreasing cost, increasing throughput, and improved annotation have expanded the diversity of genomics applications in research and clinical practice. This expanding scale creates analytical challenges: accommodating peak compute demand, coordinating secure access for multiple analysts, and sharing validated tools and results.

RESULTS: To address these challenges, we have developed the Mercury analysis pipeline and deployed it in local hardware and the Amazon Web Services cloud via the DNAnexus platform. Mercury is an automated, flexible, and extensible analysis workflow that provides accurate and reproducible genomic results at scales ranging from individuals to large cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS: By taking advantage of cloud computing and with Mercury implemented on the DNAnexus platform, we have demonstrated a powerful combination of a robust and fully validated software pipeline and a scalable computational resource that, to date, we have applied to more than 10,000 whole genome and whole exome samples.

DOI10.1186/1471-2105-15-30
Alternate JournalBMC Bioinformatics
PubMed ID24475911
PubMed Central IDPMC3922167
Grant ListU54 HG003273 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54 HG006542 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54HG003273 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54HG006542 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States