Running Genomic Analyses in the Cloud

Abstract

Genomic testing is rapidly moving into healthcare practice. However it comes with informatics challenges that the healthcare system has not previously faced - the raw data can be hundreds of gigabytes per test, the compute demands can be thousands of CPU hours, and the test can reveal deeply private health-srelated information that can have implications for anyone related to the person tested. While not a panacea, cloud computing has particular properties that can ameliorate some of these difficulties. This paper presents some of the key lessons learned while deploying a set of genomic analyses on cloud computing for Queensland Genomics.

Keywords: Genomics; cloud computing; next-generation sequencing.