DOE JGI’s IMG/M data system in Berkeley Lab’s release on the Human Microbiome Project

Berkeley Lab’s role in mapping the human microbiome revolves around big data, both analyzing it and making it available for scientists to use worldwide…. Berkeley Lab scientists developed and maintain a comparative analysis system called the Integrated Microbial Genomes and Metagenomes for the Human Microbiome Project (IMG/M HMP). It allows scientists to study the human microbiome samples within the context of reference genomes of individual microbes. Reference genomes help scientists identify the microbes in a sample.This system is a “data mart” of the larger IMG/M data warehouse that supports the analysis of microbial community genomes at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI). IMG/M contains thousands of genomes and metagenome samples with billions of genes. A metagenome consists of the aggregate  genomes of all the organisms in a microbial community.