A*STAR researchers are bringing big data genome analytics to Singapore

 08-Nov-16, Biotech in Asia

The cost of sequencing a human genome has plummeted over the past 15 years from one hundred million dollars to one thousand. Every seven months, the rate of sequencing doubles.

Image: Pixabay

“In theory, more data means more information and more knowledge. But in practice, we tend to get overwhelmed by the data and don’t know where to look,” says Niranjan Nagarajan at the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore. 

Several A*STAR institutes have joined together to launch a major initiative to establish infrastructure for big data genome analytics in Singapore, the Centre for Big Data and Integrative Genomics. c-BIG includes projects designed to catalog genetic variation in Singapore, predict a cancer patient’s response to drugs, prevent the next viral pandemic or track down the source of a bacterial outbreak. 

c-BIG is supporting the Platinum Genome Project to construct reference genomes for the Chinese, Malay and Indian populations in Singapore.

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 Elsevier APAC Healthcare Update