Super Computing 09 and BioHDF

Next month, Nov 16-20, we will be in Portland for Super Computing 09 - SC09. Join us at a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session to learn about developing bioinformatics applications with BioHDF. The session will be Wed. Nov 18 at 12:15 pm in room D139-140.

Developing Bioinformatics Applications with BioHDF

In this session we will present how HDF5 can be used to work with large volumes of DNA sequence data. We will cover the current state of bioinformatics tools that utilize HDF5 and proposed extensions to the HDF5 library to create BioHDF. The session will include a discussion of requirements that are being be considered to develop a data models for working with DNA sequence alignments to measure variation within sets of DNA sequences.

HDF5 is an open-source technology suite for managing diverse, complex, high-volume data in heterogeneous computing and storage environments. The BioHDF project is investigating the use of HDF5 for working with very large scientific datasets. HDF5 provides a hierarchical data model, binary file format, and collection of APIs supporting data access. BioHDF will extend HDF5 to support DNA sequencing requirements.

Initial prototyping of BioHDF has demonstrated clear benefits. Data can be compressed and indexed in BioHDF to reduce storage needs and enable very rapid (typically, few millisecond) random access into these sequence and alignment datasets, essentially independent of the overall HDF5 file size. Additional prototyping activities we have identified key architectural elements and tools that will form BioHDF.

The BoF session will include a presentation of the current state of BioHDF and proposed implementations to encourage discussion of future directions.