Toward efficient and reliable genome analysis using main-memory database systems

Abstract

Improvements in DNA sequencing technologies allow to sequence complete human genomes in a short time and at acceptable cost. Hence, the vision of genome analysis as standard procedure to support and improve medical treatment becomes reachable. In this vision paper, we describe important data-management challenges that have to be met to make this vision come true. Besides genome-analysis performance, data-management capabilities such as data provenance and data integrity become increasingly important to enable comprehensible and reliable genome analysis. We argue to meet these challenges by using main-memory database technologies, which combine fast processing capabilities with extensive data-management capabilities. Finally, we discuss possibilities of integrating genome-analysis tasks into DBMSs and derive new research questions.