Launching genomics into the cloud: deployment of Mercury, a next generation sequence analysis pipeline.
BACKGROUND
Massively parallel DNA sequencing generates staggering amounts of data. Decreasing cost, increasing throughput, and improved annotation have expanded the diversity of genomics applications in research and clinical practice. This expanding scale creates analytical challenges: accommodating peak compute demand, coordinating secure access for multiple analysts, and sharing validated tools and results.


RESULTS
To address these challenges, we have developed the Mercury analysis pipeline and deployed it in local hardware and the Amazon Web Services cloud via the DNAnexus platform. Mercury is an automated, flexible, and extensible analysis workflow that provides accurate and reproducible genomic results at scales ranging from individuals to large cohorts.


CONCLUSIONS
By taking advantage of cloud computing and with Mercury implemented on the DNAnexus platform, we have demonstrated a powerful combination of a robust and fully validated software pipeline and a scalable computational resource that, to date, we have applied to more than 10,000 whole genome and whole exome samples.
Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. jgreid@bcm.edu.
Jeffrey G
JG
Reid
Andrew
A
Carroll
Narayanan
N
Veeraraghavan
Mahmoud
M
Dahdouli
Andreas
A
Sundquist
Adam
A
English
Matthew
M
Bainbridge
Simon
S
White
William
W
Salerno
Christian
C
Buhay
Fuli
F
Yu
Donna
D
Muzny
Richard
R
Daly
Geoff
G
Duyk
Richard A
RA
Gibbs
Eric
E
Boerwinkle
D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D012984:Software