Software systems for a DNA sequencer

Abstract

The initiative to complete the sequencing of the human genome is bringing the need for high-throughput sequencing capabilities to the forefront. We at the BioMEMS engineering group at the Whitehead Institute are designing and building a new sequencing machine that uses a 384 glass "chip" to dramatically increase sequencing rates. This thesis describes the design and implementation of two of the machine's software components. The first is a prototype application for the control of a robot used to automate sample loading. The second is a software filter that allows us to generate quality scores from data processed by Trout using Phred. I present the algorithm used to perform the filtering and show that the results are comparable to the processing of data with the Plan- Phred processing package.