DNAnexus and Google are partnering up to host the Sequence Read Archive (SRA), a large public repository of DNA sequencing data. The SRA stores raw sequencing data from the latest generation DNA sequencing platforms at initiatives such as the 1,000 Genomes Project and institutions like the Broad Institute, Washington University, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The result is a massive amount of freely accessible data, already consisting of over 400 terabytes, and still growing every day.
So far the archive was hosted by the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), however last February this institution announced that it would phase out hosting support in its current form due to federal funding cuts (nevertheless, after the press release by DNAnexus, NCBI has now announced that it has received additional funding from NIH and will continue to function as the primary host of the SRA). DNAnexus, a company that provides a platform for DNA data management and analysis, and Google have partnered up to host a copy of the repository. DNAnexus will provide a freely accessible web-based search interface, while Google Cloud Storage will support the hosting of the data.
SRA datasets can also be imported into the commercial DNAnexus platform to access additional functionality such as mapping, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, variant analysis, and data visualization, as well as tools for integrating SRA data with their own sequence data. Coincidentally, DNAnexus also announced it is receiving a $15 million financial injection from Google Ventures and TPG Biotech. The SRA web interface has already gone online and can be found through the link below.
Press release: DNAnexus and Google Team Up To Improve Access to Vast Public Repository of Next Generation DNA Sequencing Data…
Link: Sequence Read Archive…
