Genomes on Rails
The Human Genome Project aimed to determine the entire DNA sequence of man: it was completed in 13 years after an international effort and a billion dollar budget. To further our understanding of DNA, genes, proteins and their function, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is building the next generation of high throughput sequencing, using Ruby and Rails.
This talk will cover the infrastructure required to handle multi-petabyte, highly scalable systems and how we’re using Rails to quickly build flexible software to support this effort.
Delivered with Rails guys (rather than biologists), in mind, this talk will include some code examples, some stories and a duck billed platypus:
- How we’re using Rails: how Rails runs our next gen sequencing pipeline
- Why we’re using Rails: rapid prototyping is essential in such a fast moving environment
- Our Rails deployment: Mongrel clusters, legacy Oracle integration and a massive storage array
- Integrating Rails: weaving together multiple Ruby, Rails and Perl apps using RESTful web services
- Open source and open data: adding value to data on the web
Perl was instrumental in sequencing the original human genome in 13 years. Learn how Ruby is playing a central role in sequencing another hundred genomes in the next 13 months.
People planning to attend this session also want to see:
Matt Wood
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Matt Wood heads up software development at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where he is responsible for the software that drives the Institute’s world class sequencing facility, along with the next generation of DNA sequencing technology.
Matt’s interests lie in adding value to biological data through scientific software: after completing his PhD, he’s built grid services in Nottingham, web-scale search engines in New York City and genes in Hinxton.
Matt is an advocate of agile development with Scrum, sensible semantics and, of course, the duck billed platypus.
