Personal Genome Project Deploys Isilon NAS

Isilon Systems announced that the Personal Genome Project (PGP) has deployed Isilon scale-out NAS as the central repository for an unprecedented research project aimed at transforming the use of genomic data in personalized medicine.

The PGP is using Isilon IQ to store genetic and trait data for up to 100,000 volunteers who agree to publicly share this data to advance the use of genomics in understanding human health and disease. With Isilon, the PGP has created a single, high performance, highly scalable, shared pool of storage to unify massive amounts of invaluable genomic information, providing immediate, concurrent data access to accelerate research while reducing storage management overhead and IT complexity.

"Personal genomic research may be the key that unlocks preventative and therapeutic solutions for such life-threatening conditions as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease," Dr. George Church, founder of the PGP and director of the Lipper Center for Computational Genetics, Harvard Medical School. "Its full potential will be achieved when a diverse set of researchers and educators interpret such data and help us to cross the chasm from the lab to the patient. With Isilon, we have created the world’s first publicly accessible database of integrated human genomic and trait data in order to bring the benefits of personal genomics to the public."

The massive file size and data growth challenges of genomic research continue to intensify, driven by advances in DNA sequencing chemistries, methodology, and high-throughput DNA sequencing instruments. With limited scalability and performance, traditional NAS and SAN storage systems were not designed to effectively store and manage the exponential data growth and performance-intensive applications associated with next-generation genomic research. Without a unified and flexible storage repository, organizations must spread data across multiple, disparate silos of information, creating unnecessary barriers to data access and analysis.

By deploying Isilon IQ, with its OneFS operating system software, the PGP can unify its vast collection of individual genome samples into a single, easy-to-use, efficient storage infrastructure that can seamlessly scale performance and capacity in less than 60 seconds. With Isilon IQ, the PGP’s genomic database is immediately and reliably accessible across workstations, locations and protocols, enabling the PGP’s researchers to store, analyze and process information more quickly and with greater accuracy, accelerating their groundbreaking research.

"The Personal Genome Project is challenging the status quo and pioneering an open, communal approach to advancing the study of human health through genomic research," said Ram Appalaraju, vice president of marketing, Isilon Systems. "By combining the latest advances in genomic research with Isilon’s next-generation scale-out NAS, the PGP is setting the precedent for the next wave of innovation in biomedical research."