Edico Genome, San Diego, has announced a collaboration with Dell EMC, Hopkinton, Mass, to offer a bundled computing and storage system for analysis of next-generation sequencing data.

The system includes Edico Genome’s Dragen processor integrated into a 1U Dell 4130 server for rapid genome analysis, and Dell EMC’s Isilon scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) for efficient genomic data storage across all levels of throughput capacity.

Dragen uses a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide hardware-accelerated implementations of genome pipeline algorithms. The FPGA is integrated in a 1U Dell server and optimized with Dell-EMC Isilon’s storage architecture, which is tightly coupled with the Virtustream storage cloud, and supports third-party cloud providers. The system automatically aligns application needs with performance, capacity, and economics. As performance and capacity demands increase, both can be scaled simply and nondisruptively, allowing sequencing applications and users to continue working.

Dragen’s variety of input formats and industry standard output formats are supported by Isilon’s single storage system. Dragen also features lossless real-time compression of data files transparent to the user. The system is managed through the browser-based Dragen portal, which features an easy-to-use graphical user interface.

David DeAngelis, Dell EMC.

David DeAngelis, Dell EMC.

“We believe our high-performance computing, storage, and cloud platforms, combined with Edico Genome’s next-generation sequencing bio-IT processor, Dragen, provides increased speed and accuracy and will accelerate time to insight for healthcare and life science organizations,” says David DeAngelis, general manager of the global healthcare team at Dell EMC. “This solution will help enable hospitals, academic medical centers, clinical labs, and research organizations to more efficiently deliver personalized patient care for disease treatment and prevention, improve outcomes, and advance science to clinical practice.”

Pieter van Rooyen, PhD, Edico Genome.

Pieter van Rooyen, PhD, Edico Genome.

“By combining the efficiency of Dell EMC’s compute, storage, and Virtustream storage cloud platforms with the speed and accuracy of Dragen, we are able to offer a complete, cost-effective solution for rapid genomic analysis,” says Pieter van Rooyen, PhD, CEO of Edico Genome. “Accelerating time to answers can lead to faster diagnoses for critically ill newborns, cancer patients, and expecting parents waiting on prenatal tests, and allows scientists and drug developers to spend less time waiting for data and more time interpreting results.”

Dragen features optimized, hardware-based algorithms for mapping, alignment, sorting, and variant calling. Multiple end-to-end, clinical-grade pipelines are available, including genome/exome, transcriptome/RNA-seq, epigenome/methyl-seq, metagenome/microbiome, joint genotyping, and GATK 3.6. Updated versions are made available for customers through regular, simple remote downloads.

For more information, visit Edico Genome.