Google joins effort to boost genomics research

Google announced Wednesday it was teaming up with university scientists to use its computing platform to accelerate efforts in genomics research.

The US tech giant said it was joining with the Broad Institute of biomedical and genomic research, a project of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Large-scale genomic information is accelerating scientific progress in cancer, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, and many other diseases," said Eric Lander, director of Broad Institute.

"Storing, analyzing, and managing these data is becoming a critical challenge for biomedical researchers. We are excited to work with Google's talented and experienced engineers to develop ways to empower researchers around the world by making it easier to access and use genomic information."

In the first step, the research center's Genome Analysis Toolkit will be made available on Google's cloud platform "to enable any genomic researcher to upload, store, and analyze data," according to a joint statement.

Google created its own genomics database two years ago to help the scientific community access it.

The new collaboration "will work together to explore how to build new tools and find new insights to propel biomedical research, using deep bioinformatics expertise, powerful analytics, and massive computing infrastructure," Google said in a blog post.

© 2015 AFP