Over the last decade, DNA sequencing has made vast technological improvements. With the cost of sequencing decreasing significantly, sequencing technology has become a product for the masses. The sequencing technology and programs that were once used exclusively by major research institutions are now becoming available in many research facilities around the globe. These tools produce large amounts of data sets that require specialized processing before meaningful interpretation can begin.
The handling and interpretation of sequencing data from the current generation of sequencing instruments has fallen to the field of bioinformatics. Trained bioinformaticians are in short supply (Wellesen, 2014). Some larger laboratories have bioinformaticians on staff to support the sequencing efforts of the lab. Many smaller laboratories aren’t able to support their own bioinformatician, and must chose to (1) use a shared resource or “bioinformatics core” at their host institution, (2) outsource the analysis, or (3) learn to do the analysis with existing resources (MacLean & Kamoun, 2012).
In other words, the field of genomic research is being plagued with a massive wave of data waiting to be analyzed while there is a shortage of experts to conduct this kind of work.
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