Searching genomic data faster: Biologists' capacity for generating genomic data is increasing more rapidly than computing power
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - 15:00
in Biology & Nature
In 2001, the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics announced that after 10 years of work at a cost of some $400 million, they had completed a draft sequence of the human genome. Today, sequencing a human genome is something that a single researcher can do in a couple of weeks for less than $10,000. Since 2002, the rate at which genomes can be sequenced has been doubling every four months or so, whereas computing power doubles only every 18 months. Now a new algorithm drastically reduces the time it takes to find a particular gene sequence in a database of genomes.