Autism Speaks Lands Google Partnership for Whole Genome Storage

June 10, 2014 | Today, Autism Speaks announced that Google has agreed to host the database of the AUT10K program, which plans to house 10,000 whole genomes of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families, alongside detailed clinical information. Autism Speaks has already collected samples and phenotypes from 12,000 individuals, and fully sequenced 1,000 of those; however, it has been searching for a platform that can both store that information, and make it accessible and usable for collaborating researchers.

The Google Cloud Platform will now make it possible to rapidly tap into the AUT10K database from anywhere in the world. Bioinformatics tools will also reportedly be available directly on the cloud servers, for analysis of the AUT10K data. This partnership follows the launch earlier this year of Google Genomics, a general-purpose cloud environment for genomic studies that is now in limited release.

The full announcement can be read at the Autism Speaks website.