Geospiza, ABI, and Next Generation Sequencing

One of the chief complaints we hear in articles on Next Generation sequencing technologies has concerned the lack of bioinformatics support on the part of the Next Gen vendors. Lab directors have described feeling like they've been left on their own to when it comes to solutions for handling the enormous amount of data produced by Next Gen instruments. I suspect that the people at Applied Biosystems must read the same articles.

This morning, Applied Biosystems issued a response to those complaints. Today's press release describes how ABI and Geospiza are working together to address the Next Generation problem of managing Next Generation sequencing data.

That's right. We've got a Next Generation FinchLab system that's ready to go AND it supports the ABI's SOLiD platform. You can even try it out if you're attending the ABRF conference in Utah next week. (See us in booth 210, pass it on!)

Now, I'm going to quote the best parts from the press release and interject just a little bit of commentary:

Geospiza Offers IT Infrastructure Solution
As part of Geospiza’s participation in Applied Biosystems’ Software Development Community, Geospiza developed a software system designed to automate sequencing workflows for capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrumentation. Applied Biosystems’ agreement with Geospiza is expected to extend Geospiza’s Finch Suite® software and its knowledge of 3130 Series Genetic Analyzers and 3730 Series DNA Analyzers to SOLiD System-specific IT infrastructure support, software and tools with its new FinchLab™ Next Gen Edition product.

As life scientists expand their research capabilities by using the SOLiD System, Geospiza expects to support these customers by processing both CE and SOLiD data through a single data processing pipeline, which will enable them to integrate and visualize the two data sets from both technologies. This integrated solution is expected to enable researchers to utilize both the SOLiD System for discovery applications and CE systems for validation, connecting the research continuum.

[snip]

Yes, that's right. The Next Gen Edition of FinchLab handles both Next Gen and Sanger sequencing. You can use the same system to manage both kinds of data. Cool, huh?

[snip]

This development is expected to benefit many organizations, including the University of Washington, which is a user of the FinchLab software and an early adopter of the SOLiD System. Scientists in the university’s High Throughput Sequencing Solutions Laboratory recognize the challenges associated with the vast amount of data being generated from next-generation sequencing systems.

“As a Geospiza FinchLab customer and a laboratory that has acquired a SOLiD System sequencer, any collaborative effort between Geospiza and Applied Biosystems to help laboratory directors meet the coming next-generation sequencer data management and analytics challenges would be a welcome relationship for the research community,” said Dr. Michael Dorschner, the director of the University of Washington’s High Throughput Sequencing Solutions Laboratory.

Geospiza plans to deepen the integration between its FinchLab Next Gen Edition software product and the SOLiD System to provide a comprehensive solution that includes data management systems to define experiments, and the ability to track data through production, and process genetic analysis platforms in a scaleable high capacity storage system.

“By expanding our long-standing relationship with Applied Biosystems, we are answering the call for bioinformatics solutions to help accelerate research on next-generation genomics analysis platforms,” said Rob Arnold, President, Geospiza. “Laboratory directorsand end users should benefit equally from the more natural workflow as they switch between the software and the instrument for data generation, management and analysis. Our platform is specifically designed to scale with the lab as their needs grow.”

If you want to read the rest, you can find it here. If you want to learn more about surviving the Next Gen data onslaught, send us an e-mail or give us a call.