Decoding a Deluge of Data: U of T Medicine Project Receives Funding for Bioinformatics Research
By
Jenny Hall
U of T Medicine researchers have won $998,546 in funding through Genome Canada's 2012 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Competition, a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The competition supports the development of next generation tools to deal with the large volumes of data produced by today’s genomics technologies.
“Genome sequencing is evolving from being a research project to a routine medical test,” says Brudno, also Director of the Centre for Computational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children. He and Bader want to help clinicians interpret these tests to better-target medical treatment.
The data generated when a genome is sequenced are in the terabyte range — much more than any human could make sense of (a terabyte of paper stacked would make a 66,000-mile tower). The team’s software will help distil the data down to a few megabytes of information that is actually useful (a megabyte is roughly equivalent to 500 pages of text).
“Often, it is hard to figure out the exact type of disorder a patient has. Two disorders that look the same may have different genetic causes — and need different courses of treatment,” says Brudno, adding that sequencing a patient’s genome allows for precisely targeted treatment.
The software can also be used to help healthy patients understand their risk of developing genetic diseases like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
“Bioinformatics becomes increasingly important as researchers are able to generate more and more data,” said Judith Chadwick, U of T’s Assistant Vice-President, Research and Innovation. “Tools that help us make sense of these data are the keys to better health and quality of life. On behalf of the University of Toronto, thanks to Genome Canada for these awards — and to the Ontario Genomics Institute for facilitating them. And congratulations to the researchers on these richly deserved awards.”
This work was funded by the Government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute, as well as by the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), which will allow the researchers to test and refine their software in collaboration doctors treating patients at SickKids. Brudno notes that a previous grant from the Ontario Genomics Institute was instrumental in getting the project started.
Brudno is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science. Bader is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Molecular Genetics and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital.
