Gainesville, FL, December 8, 2009 (PRWeb) – The Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR) at the University of Florida and GenomeQuest, Inc. today announced that ICBR is adopting the GenomeQuest platform for sequence data management (SDM) in next generation sequencing (NGS)-based services.
ICBR Associate Director Bill Farmerie, comments, “As we advanced to NGS, the complexity and sheer volume of data demands robust SDM support. We know from previous experience that solutions are expensive to develop and difficult to sustain using only local resources. Therefore, we look to adopt and support industry solutions whenever possible -- it makes good business sense.” Farmerie continues, “As an NGS-services provider our most important focus is supporting the needs of our local research community. GenomeQuest helps us do our job -- it’s fast, accurate, web 2.0-based, and scalable. And its open platform allows our bioinformatics staff to focus on higher value services and develop new applications that take advantage of the GenomeQuest Engine and its API’s.”
GenomeQuest allows researchers to manage, mine, share, and aggregate their NGS sequence data and results – all from a web-browser and personalized dashboard and while accessing the world’s largest collection of sequence reference databases. Bioinformatics managers can customize discovery workflows and unify their sequence data environment using the open platform. IT and business managers efficiently scale to broad utilization of NGS in their discovery operations.
On the connection between NGS and SDM, Farmerie elaborates, “With NGS, the name of the game becomes data management. First, the fundamental cost reduction, expanded samplings, and increased statistical confidence offered by NGS is fast expanding the domain of sequence addressable problems and the population of researchers entering sequence-based discovery. Second, the volume of each run is larger by orders of magnitude. Consequently, our top priority soon became the proper management of sequence data so the bioresearch communities we serve are fully empowered to compare and interpret their results – after all, the answer lies in the data. With GenomeQuest, our data management has turned from service bottleneck to enabler.”
Ron Ranauro, CEO of GenomeQuest, comments, “It’s a pleasure and quite valuable to work with a thought-leader like Bill. In fact, ICBR was one of the first core organizations to adopt NGS, so it’s not surprising that he’s among the first to recognize the need and power of SDM.” He adds, “Bill also encouraged our innovative commercial model for core labs. With it, labs can immediately and affordably offer our SDM on a pay-as-you-go basis to researchers – enabling institute-wide access to NGS-capable SDM and expanding the portfolio of services offered by the core facility”.
The ICBR Genomics Division supports research in basic science, agriculture, and medicine by giving life-scientists access to modern genomics technology and data management services. In his position, Farmerie is part of the team responsible for enabling bioinformatics, DNA sequencing, microarray technology, genotyping, and advanced next generation DNA sequencing at ICBR. He comments, “We’re here to serve the UF research community – to help them reach that special moment of discovery. If a researcher makes a great discovery and our tools and programs helped, we’ve done our job.”
Available from the GenomeQuest Web site is an extended blogcast interview with Farmerie, and a video presentation that explains GenomeQuest’s solution for Core Labs.
In related news, GenomeQuest recently announced the availability of a free Basic Account to researchers performing discovery using NGS. The Basic Account offers access to all GenomeQuest 6.1Beta functionality and one hundred percent of the results of Sanger sequence runs and a full sampling of NGS runs.
About ICBR
ICBR’s mission is to serve as a world-class research support center that provides scientifically knowledgeable, technically superb scientific services to University of Florida faculty, staff, graduate students, and other research partners throughout the state and nation. Learn more at www.biotech.ufl.edu
About GenomeQuest
GenomeQuest, the leader in sequence data management (SDM) helps genomic researchers and their organizations make great discoveries far faster. Over 160 leading life science companies use GenomeQuest for mission-critical work, including 18 of the top 20 pharmaceuticals.
Using GenomeQuest, organizations improve the performance of their discovery process and broadly prepare for next generation sequencing (NGS). Researchers perform discoveries, manage and share sequence data, and access the world’s largest collection of reference databases from a web-browser and personalized dashboard. Bioinformatics managers customize discovery workflows and unify their sequence data environment using the open platform. IT and business managers efficiently scale to broad utilization of next generation sequencing in their discovery operations using the GQ-Engine.
Learn more at www.genomequest.com.
