Technology Driven
At HudsonAlpha, our scientists develop the tools and techniques that fuel scientific progress. We believe that by driving forward the technology of genomics, discoveries will follow — and will impact the world around us at a rate, scale and scope heretofore unimagined.
Nobel Medicine laureate prize winner, Sydney Bremmer, once described scientific progress as “the interplay of techniques, discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order of decreasing importance.”
HudsonAlpha researchers have harnessed not only the science of genomics, but also how discoveries can catalyze progress in different fields. Beyond the depths of disease and discipline-based research, our investigators explore critical problems in agriculture and bioenergy that expand our knowledge of life on this planet. We investigate the diversity of life through trees, plants, fungi, even animal pelt patterns—as well as human health.
We recognize that the ability to acquire DNA sequences has grown at an unprecedented rate, and we believe this massive amount of data can be applied with scale and scope not previously appreciated. By testing the limits of sequencing technology, HudsonAlpha’s scientists have developed unparalleled expertise in the acquisition, analysis and application of genomic information.
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Sequencing the human genome was the initial obstacle to translating genomic understanding into applications that improve human health and well-being. Today, with next generation sequencing technology, sequencing is no longer a barrier.
The new challenge lies in processing the wealth of data into information that can be applied in the development of new diagnostics, treatments, medicines, materials or processes.
HudsonAlpha’s computational biologists and the bioinformatics team aim to extract biological signal — useful information about how cells, tissues, and organs develop and function — from the billions of points of genomic data generated by HudsonAlpha’s high-throughput sequencers every day. Comprised of biologists, computer scientists, statisticians, mathematicians, and software developers, the computational and informatics teams work creatively and collaboratively to fortify scientific research with value-adding analysis and interpretation. By continuously developing new and novel analysis techniques, they are able to return data with rigorous quality control in a form that has the greatest value to scientists using the data.
HudsonAlpha currently processes more than 80 TB of raw sequencer data through our data pipelines each month. The exome, ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, whole genome, and methylation (methyl-seq) data that passes through the pipelines requires a constant commitment to better hardware and better software. We currently have more than 6 PB of storage and 1532 cores dedicated to sequencing and analysis.