July 2020CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8IN MY Viewequencing the human genome is dropping below $1000, resulting in massive growth in the amount of genomic data being generated by the Life Sciences industry. Projections estimate that somewhere between 100 million and 2 billion genomes will be sequenced by the year 2025, generating between 2 and 40 exabytes of data. Beyond the storage challenges, lies the need for computational resources to analyze this data at scale. This becomes especially relevant when analyzing large scale population data sets. There have been several population genomic initiatives launched in the last few years including deCODE, Genomics England, Qatar Genome Programme, Genomics Medicine Ireland, UK Biobank, All of US, FinnGen and others. Early endeavors in population genomics relied on array data with ~1,000,000 markers for common SNPs ­recent efforts are shifting to whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the 3.2 billion base pairs that define an individual's genome. Increased affordability aside, the surge in WGS is also attributed to the potential for discovering novel drug targets that can better treat the root cause of a condition rather than the symptoms. WGS enables the detection of rare variants with large effects that can provide greater insight into phenotypic variation of complex diseases, such as Non-Alcoholic Steato Hepatitis (NASH), Multiple The Rise of Population Genomics in Target DiscoveryIRENE BLAT, PH.D., SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR OF TRANSLATIONAL GENOMICS, WUXI NEXTCODE GENOMICS S
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