Galaxy, a DNA analysis tool used in biomedical research, will now be available as cloud-based software, it was announced this week.

The open-source, web-based platform allows scientists to conduct their data intensive studies in the field of genetics. By placing Galaxy in the cloud, tools such as DNA sequencing and analysis software will become more easily accessible and there is the benefit of the greater storage capacity for the masses of data generated.

The Galaxy computing system was created in 2005 by a team of leading researchers including Anton Nekrutenko, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University; Kateryna Makova, an associate professor of biology at Penn State; and James Taylor from Emory University.

The system had previously been hosted on Penn State’s own servers but the team of scientists have now chosen to use Amazon Web Services to provide all the power and storage that they require to conduct their research and the subsequent analysis.

Nekrutenko said: “Galaxy combines the power of existing genome-annotation databases with a simple web portal to enable users to search remote resources, combine data from independent queries, and visualise the results.”

When explaining the benefit to hosting the Galaxy software in the cloud, Nekrutenko added: “Rather than run Galaxy on one’s own computer or use Penn State’s servers to access Galaxy, now a researcher can harness the power of the cloud, which allows almost unlimited computing power

“Galaxy Cloud offers many advantages other than the obvious ones, such as computing power for large amounts of data and the ability for a scientist without much computer training to use DNA-analysis tools that might not otherwise be accessible. For example, researchers need not invest in expensive computer infrastructure to be able to perform data-intensive, sophisticated scientific analyses.”