Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Google and Autism Speaks are joining forces to sequence the genomes of 10,000 people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and store the information in the cloud so that it could be easily accessed by researchers.
The groundbreaking initiative known as MSSNG was launched with the intention of creating “the world’s largest database of sequenced genomic information on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their family members,” the advocacy group explained in a statement Tuesday.
MSSNG (pronounced “missing”) deliberately omits vowels in order to “represent the missing pieces of the autism puzzle. It is symbolic of the missing information about autism that the project is designed to find,” Autism Speaks said. The organization hailing the program as “a significant milestone in advancing genomic research of autism” that “could lead to breakthroughs into the causes, subtypes and better diagnosis and treatment for the disorder.”
According to Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley, an estimated one of every 68 children has ASD, and scientists have only recently started figuring out the genetic and environmental factors responsible for the disorder. Much of that progress is the result of analysis of DNA of people with the condition, and Autism Speaks and Google believe that digitizing genetic information could lead to the next great breakthrough.
Rob Ring, the chief science officer at Autism Speaks, told the Washington Post that he and his colleagues were hopeful that the cloud-based initiative “will provide the data on which discoveries around autism are made for years to come.” The group has been collecting volunteered sequences for years, Tankersley said.
MSSNG “will open its cloud portal to scientists early next year with 1,000 of them already in the bank. Researchers anywhere in the world will have the opportunity to tap in and look for new clues in that data,” he added. “The goal is for that access to produce a sort of crowdsourcing for autism answers.”
Fast Company’s David Matthews said that Google’s advanced search capabilities are at the core of this new initiative. MSSNG will use Google Genomics, a tool launched earlier this year on the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that uses its search engine algorithm to investigate genetic data to find clues that will help experts better understand autism.
“The relative cheapness and ease of genetic sequencing today versus the early days of genetic research have certainly been a boon to researchers, but it has also created an increasingly unmanageable volume of data,” Matthews said. “A single human genetic sequence typically runs to around 100 gigabytes, and when you’re trying to tackle numbers of sequences in the tens of thousands, server space becomes an issue.”
Google’s involvement in the project will give researchers a virtual place to organize data collectively instead of having to ship hard drives back and forth to one another, he added. In addition to allowing Google to take part in a potentially important service to the healthcare community, the project will enable them to showcase and enhance the capabilities of its cloud-based service, added Wired.com’s Marcus Wohlsen.
“Millions of people living with autism today need answers. The MSSNG project is the search for those answers, and we’re going to find them,” said Autism Speaks President Liz Feld. “The best research minds in the world are going to mine this database of DNA so we can uncover and understand the various subtypes of autism. Then we can get to work developing customized treatments and therapies so we can improve the quality of life for so many people who need help.”
Recommended Reading – The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
Crowdsourcing For Autism Answers With Google And Autism Speaks MSSNG Project
editor
Comments