Compute resources available to the research community for microbiome analysis

Abstract

The National Center for Genome Analysis Support (NCGAS) is an NSF-funded center tasked with assisting biologists in getting access to computational resources they need in order to analyze genomic data. To support microbiome analysis, NCGAS provides preconfigured virtual machines (VM) to identify taxa in 16S amplicon sequencing, and to identify both taxa and functions from whole genome metagenomes. Additionally, a pipeline to reconstruct genomes from metagenomes, to examine the role of specific microbes in a community, is available as a preconfigured VM hosting Anvi’o (https://ncgas.org/Blog_Posts/Running%20Anvio%20on%20Jetstream.php). Jetstream, a cloud computing resource, is both easy to use and flattens the learning curve for using the Linux operating system and for installing bioinformatics software. Jetstream provides an environment for both prototyping and publishing tailored workflows. Through an NCGAS allocation, a researcher can get access to Jetstream, and to other national compute clusters with more memory and for parallel processing. These compute resources have Globus connect subscriptions which assists in transferring terabytes of data quickly. In this workshop, we will demonstrate how to get an NCGAS allocation, set up a Jetstream account, spin up a preconfigured virtual machine for microbiome analysis (https://ncgas.org/Blog_Posts/Getting%20Started%20on%20Jetstream.php), and transfer data between compute clusters using Globus (https://ncgas.org/Blog_Posts/Getting%20Started%20with%20Globus.php).