phs000427
Evaluation of next-generation sequence compression strategies for cancer genomes
The rapid decline in cost for sequencing whole genomes with next-generation technologies has led to an enthusiastic adoption of this high throughput technology by biomedical researchers. The data sets produced currently range from 5 gigabases of sequence data per sample (slightly larger than the size of a DVD) for exome studies up to 800 gigabases (200 DVDs) per sample for "high density" measurements of patient genome sequences. These data are being submitted to central sequence archives at a rate that is growing exponentially faster than disk storage technology. In the next 12 to 24 months the flow of data will completely outstrip our capacity to store the primary data. We look to engineer a solution to this problem by establishing data compression protocols that shrink file sizes while preserving the important features of patient genome variation necessary for conducing cancer research.