Appistry Launches NGS Pipeline Creation Challenge

By Bio-IT World Staff 

 

July 9, 2014 | If you’ve got an idea for a next-gen sequencing analysis pipeline—and you’re creative on camera—Appistry invites you to participate in its inaugural Appistry Pipeline Challenge. The winning group will receive $70,000 worth of hardware and software to build its pipeline. 

 

The Challenge is accepting entries from now until August 15, 2014 and is open to any U.S.-based research. The winner will be announced on August 28, 2014.

 

Appistry intends for the competition to specifically address clinical and precision medicine applications, and hopes that the software and hardware tools offered in the prize will equip some really creative thinking. 

 

“If we’ve learned anything while helping our customers implement production-grade pipelines—pipelines capable of being used reliably and repeatedly in a controlled, clinical setting—it’s that they are difficult to build,” said Dr. Rich Mazzarella, chief scientific officer at Appistry, in a press release. “

 

“It requires expertise in everything from bioinformatics to high-performance computing, and not everyone has access to resources that can streamline development and deployment. Appistry is leveling the playing field by spurring creativity and helping one team transform its innovative idea into a solution that can drive clinical research and genomically enhanced medicine.”

 

To enter, teams are invited to complete a simple application form and write a 500 word abstract detailing how the pipeline will make an impact on clinical research and precision medicine, which bioinformatics tools will be used, and introducing the project team. 

 

From there, teams are encouraged to make a case for their pipelines in 60-90 second videos and post the results on Facebook or Twitter, tagging Appistry and #pickmypipeline. “Creativity is appreciated!” says Appistry. “Have fun.” 

 

A panel of judges will determine the competition’s winner based on the quality of the overall entry; the need for a solution to the problem the project addresses; the innovation displayed in the tools selected and their use in the pipeline; and the impact the solution will have on clinical research or precision medicine. 

 

The prize package from Appistry comprises an one-year license to commercial versions of industry-leading NGS analysis tools from the Broad Institute, which includes the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK), MuTect, ContEst, and Somatic Indel Detector; and Appistry’s Ayrris On Ramp Program for NGS analysis, which provides a developer workstation with installed software for managing tools, data, and pipelines; preconfigured analysis tools and starter pipelines; and eight hours of training from Appistry.

 

A live webinar for questions is scheduled for Thursday, July 24, 2014. Full details can be found online at appistry.com/contest.