ASTRONOMY

"The woolly mammoth DNA we recently sequenced at Penn State represents the first genomic data submitted to the NCBI database in the 454 Life Sciences' format. We are delighted with the Genome Sequencer 20 System and its ability to rapidly perform DNA sequencing on samples, which could not previously be sequenced, and the ability to submit the sequencing data directly to the Trace Archive. The submission of our sequencing data allowed for the results to be publicly available prior to the publication of our article in the peer-reviewed journal, Science," stated Stephan C. Schuster, Associate Professor at Penn State's Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics. "Today's announcement underscores 454 Life Sciences' commitment to working cooperatively with the academic community to facilitate genetic research and the open exchange of sequence information," stated Christopher K. McLeod, President and Chief Executive Officer of 454 Life Sciences. "We are pleased that the NCBI has adopted a standard for accepting data generated with 454 Life Sciences' Genome Sequencer 20 System into the Trace Archive. We hope that the extraordinary amount of data being generated with our technology will be placed into the public domain, thereby fostering research in a variety of areas including medicine, biology, and paleontology." The Trace Archive (in collaboration with the Ensembl Trace Server) is a repository for the raw sequence data underlying genome projects. Although the initial data deposition to this repository occurred in early 2001, the content of the repository is rapidly approaching 1,000,000,000 traces representing over 480 species. The Trace Archive has become crucial in the storage, management and dissemination of sequence data. "It is exciting that the data generated on the Genome Sequencer 20 System is in a format that can be deposited directly into the NCBI Trace Archive. This will make the massive amount of data generated by this revolutionary system easily available to the scientific community. It is refreshing to see that 454 Life Sciences is working closely with those of us who support open data formats and improved data access," stated Dr. Bruce A. Roe, George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma. For more information on SFF, see its Web site.