Choosing a service for cloud genomics
Pharmaceutical companies were offered to choose between Google and Amazon
Sofya Lopaeva, Vademecum
Research institutes and pharmaceutical companies will have to choose between two "cloud" services for storing human genome data – Google Genomics and Amazon Web Services. Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc will compete for the storage of human genome data in the "cloud". With the help of cloud technologies, companies want to help scientists in new discoveries.
The volume of the global market for "cloud genomics" is $100-300 million and will grow to $1 billion by 2018. It is assumed that the winner will take a significant share of this market.
Experts predict the success of such projects, which can become an impetus for the development of personalized treatment based on the "genetic passport" of the patient. An individual approach to therapy involves storing a huge amount of data, on the basis of which it is possible to conclude about the effectiveness of treatment for certain DNA profiles.
According to Reuters (Amazon, Google race to get your DNA into the cloud), in addition to data storage, IT giants offer pharmaceutical companies and research centers "cloud" analytics that will allow scientists to understand the available DNA data. Microsoft Corp and International Business Machines also want to take a part of this market.
Now Google and Amazon servers store information about the genome for free. According to some analysts and scientists and the statements of the companies themselves, the storage capacity of Amazon Web Services may be larger.
Amazon and Google already have large customers using cloud genomics services. For example, the international public-private partnership "1,000 Genomes", which studies genetic variation, uses Amazon and Google databases free of charge. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Geisinger Health Systems from Pennsylvania are collaborating with Amazon, which has provided them with a repository for data on the genome of 250 thousand people. Amazon is partnering with the Multiple Myeloma Foundation, a charity that studies multiple myeloma. The project involves obtaining complete genome sequences and other data from thousands of patients to create new drugs for this disease. Amazon is taking part in a similar project dedicated to Alzheimer's disease, which is led by the US National Institute for the Study of Aging (NIA) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
Google, in turn, won a grant from the Autism Speaks Foundation to collect and analyze the genomes of 10,000 autistic children and their parents, which will help to find out the genetic prerequisites for the development of this disease. Another client of the Internet giant is Tute Genomics with a database of 8.5 billion genetic variations.
Amazon charges $4-5 per month for storing one complete human genome, and Google charges $3-5. Companies also require a fee for data transmission and for calculations, if a scientist wants to conduct stored data through analytical software. Amazon's Redshift data analysis tool costs 25 cents per hour, or $1 thousand per terabyte per year.
In mid-May 2015, the American private Medical Research Center and Craig Venter's company signed an agreement on joint genome sequencing to search for genes of new diseases. At the end of March, 10 leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies decided to cooperate in the field of decoding the genome of 100 thousand seriously ill patients.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru08.06.2015