One of the main things that differentiates genomics from other endeavors that use a lot of disk space is that genomics file systems tend to have a lot of files (millions). This was true with Sanger sequencing, and it seems to be even more true with next-generation sequencing technologies, especially Illumina/Solexa and AB SOLiD. This large number of files and the parallel access of these files by large computational clusters tends to give most storage... Full Post
The Genome Center's Elaine Mardis and Rick Wilson have just published a review article on cancer genome sequencing. The article focuses on the application of next-generation sequencing technologies to the study of cancer, covering structural variation studies using low coverage paired-end sequence data, targeted gene sequencing studies using PCR and Sanger sequencing, transcriptome sequencing using RNA-seq, and whole-genome sequencing, e.g., our AML publications. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the future of cancer... Full Post
The Young Professionals Board of the St. Louis Crisis Nursery is hosting it's second annual Party with a Purpose on Thursday November 12, 2009. The event is once again at Bar Napoli. Tickets are still available (put "YPB Event" in the comment field) and include hors d'oeuvres and an open bar ($60) or two drinks ($40). I hope to see you there. Full Post
Not entirely relevant, but I thought this animation of a how a virus invades your cells and multiplies is entertaining, if not all that informative. Full Post
In a recent New York Times article, Jimmy Lin from of the University of Maryland is quoted as saying, "Science these days has basically turned into a data-management problem." If this is true, then those responsible for data management have failed. The last thing scientists should be worrying about is managing data. Mining data, sure, but managing data? While the efforts documented in that story to begin to teach scientists how to grapple with large... Full Post