New public resource, tools for pediatric genomic research

Researchers around the globe can now access thousands of pediatric cancer genomic data sets, thanks to a new cloud-based initiative. St. Jude Department of Computational Biology presented the St. Jude Cloud, a publicly available database of pediatric cancer genomics data, at the April 2018 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. The system, a collaboration among St. Jude, DNAnexus, and Microsoft, offers data analysis and visualization tools as well. St. Jude researchers revealed at the meeting that they had used the new cloud-based resource to replicate, in just a few days, experimental findings of pathogenic variations associated with ultraviolet light damage in a B-cell leukemia, while the original project had required more than two years. Currently, the cloud resource contains 5,000 genome, 5,000 exome, and 1,200 RNA-Seq data sets from pediatric cancer patients. The data sets came from the Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, the Genomes for Kids clinical trial, and the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort study. Of particular interest for genomics researchers, the new tool allows exploration of not only the already uploaded data but also data provided by individual researchers. One new tool provides visualizations of genomic changes identified as being involved in cancer development. The new resource is available online at https://stjude.cloud for exploration and analysis. —Karyn Hede, News Editor

Police hacking of private DNA databases reveals vulnerabilities

The lightly regulated commercial DNA database industry has been outed for its near complete lack of safeguards against hackers by, of all people, the police. The Los Angeles Times reported that California law enforcement tracked down the Golden State Killer through the direct-to-consumer DNA sequencing industry. The arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 72, in a suburb of Sacramento, came just as the book I'll Be Gone in the Dark by amateur crime sleuth Michelle McNamara, the late wife of actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, was released. McNamara's fingering of the suspect put pressure on the police to explain how they had independently found the accused killer, who committed his crimes decades ago. The response-that they had created a fake name and submitted DNA evidence from old crime scenes to the unnamed company-answered one question but raised many more alarming ones about the ease with which the public's DNA can be hacked. Millions of people curious about their ancestry have submitted specimens to these companies. Now it appears that, unknown to them, their genomic information is being accessed by the criminal justice system looking for criminal perpetrators and their relatives. While this may strike some as a nonissue if they haven't committed a crime, the potential for false positives is quite real. Additionally, there are other ways this information can be misused, if it can be linked to the individual who submitted the DNA sample. Even de-identified genomes can be fairly easily re-identified. The Golden State Killer case may have just opened up a new can of genomic worms. —Karyn Hede, News Editor