The National Science Foundation has granted $18.4 million to an Antarctic genomic sequencing initiative.<\/p>\n
Researchers will produce an AI-supported open-access data portal of Antarctic genomic samples. The Antarctic GIGA-DATA Initiative will be led by a team of researchers across academic institutions, including UC Berkeley integrative biology professor Rauri Bowie.<\/p>\n
The initiative will open source Antarctic genome samples from the scientific community and utilize sequencing processes to produce high-quality genomic data. It is set to be a five-year project and launched Thursday.<\/p>\n
As co-principal investigator, Bowie will select the invertebrate and vertebrate samples that are used to generate data.<\/p>\n
Just 2% of terrestrial species in Antarctica have been sequenced. Bowie aims to prioritize high-quality samples that \u201ccover the full diversity of life\u201d in Antarctica \u2014 what he deems the \u201cRolls-Royce\u201d of genomes.<\/p>\n
According to lead researcher Alison Murray, initiative members will focus on the McMurdo Dry Valleys and Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area.<\/p>\n
Information generated from the samples will be used to compile a data portal for the public. The data portal will be integrated with user-oriented AI and machine learning tools, meant to aid users\u2019 data exploration.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody from a high school student, to the general public, to the research community\u201d will be able to explore the available data, Bowie said.<\/p>\n
The portal is unique in terms of the breadth of data samples it will integrate into a single infrastructure. It will cover a broad spectrum of single-cell and multi-cell organisms, including eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea.<\/p>\n
\u201cA strength and a challenge comes from working across such diverse organisms,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re going to build will be unlike most other databases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers additionally plan to launch an early-career training program for student researchers through involvement with the Antarctic GIGA-DATA Initiative. According to Bowie, they aim to involve a large number of undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of academic institutions.<\/p>\n
Antarctica hosts a diversity of life, yet little is known about Antarctic genomes. Through this initiative, Bowie hopes to better understand how organisms have adapted to extreme climates.<\/p>\n
Bowie and Murray believe the GIGA-DATA Initiative could spur development in a broad array of scientific disciplines, including biotechnology and genomics. Murray hopes that interaction with the initiative\u2019s data portal will spark further innovation from users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this research is going to have a really profound impact,\u201d Bowie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Science Foundation has granted $18.4 million to an Antarctic genomic sequencing initiative. Researchers will produce an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2007,189395,102036,189393,71889,189396,23188,143,145,144,189394,118754,189397,149],"class_list":["post-483745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ai","tag-alison-murray","tag-antarctic","tag-antarctic-giga-data-initiative","tag-antarctica","tag-mcmurdo-dry-valleys","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-rauri-bowie","tag-rolls-royce","tag-ross-sea-region-marine-protected-area","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}