CHOP Sets World Record In Genetic Research
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is being honored by the Guinness Book of World Records for a technological breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for kids with difficult diseases.
CHOP now holds the title of "fastest time to analyze 1,000 genomes."
It took two hours and 25 minutes for a team from the hospital, and the biotech company Edico Genome, to turn the pediatric DNA into data researchers can use for medical innovations.
More than 60 percent of the samples were from African-American children. CHOP says it's one of the largest sequences of that demographic.
The anonymous patient data includes common complex disorders and rare single-gene diseases. Researchers will look to use the analysis to find genetic links and to develop treatments for kids.
Edico's Dragen bio-IT processor combined with Amazon's cloud computing service AWS for the full-speed-ahead performance.