Curoverse- A New Entry into Genomic Big-Data Sphere

Curoverse, a Boston based start-up is working on developing a software that can handle humongous amounts of genetic data. The new product they are working on is based on a software that was created for use in Harvard University’s Personal Genome Project.

Personal Genome Project, pioneered by Prof. George M. Church of Harvard Medical School is aimed at sequencing and publicizing complete genomes and medical records of 100,000 volunteers. The project aims to place this information on a public domain, and a software with cloud computing and big data capabilities was developed by a team of computer scientists led by Alexander Wait Zaranek for this purpose. Until now, this software was confined to the Harvard Personal Genome Project and Harvard Medical School facilities. Curoverse is changing this with Arvados, an open computational platform (currently in beta stage) built upon this software with additional features that enables scientists to repeat the experiments they had conducted on an earlier time and compare both results. It also enables data sharing between people and organizations as well, getting rid of security constraints and the previous practice of shipping them physically on hard drives.

Curoverse, formerly known as Clinical Future has also received a $1.5 Million seed funding from Hatteras Venture Partners , Point Judith Ventures , MassVentures , Boston Global Ventures and Common Angels. The company is planning to launch its first commercial product earlier next year with more to follow soon.