Case Study: Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) accelerates genome assembly and disease discovery with DataDirect Networks (DDN) EXAScaler storage

The Translational Genomics Research Institute - Customer Case Study

Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) relies on high-throughput genomic sequencing to drive early diagnostics and new treatments, but explosive growth in sequencing output outpaced its legacy clustered NAS. Alignment—the most I/O‑intensive step—became a bottleneck: concurrent jobs stalled performance, scaling was costly, and researchers faced delays assembling billions of short DNA reads into complete genomes.

TGen partnered with ASU A2C2 and deployed DDN EXAScaler (SFA12K with the Lustre file system) over a 10 Gb link to replace the NAS. The new solution eliminated the assembly bottleneck, enabled faster remote full‑genome alignments than local runs, and provided pay-as-you-grow, petabyte‑scale expansion with lower capacity costs and consistent performance for concurrent workflows—letting researchers focus on science rather than storage.

Translational Genomics Research Institute

Kevin Campbell

HPC Operations Manager, TGen