On May 15, Ovation had the honor of having Barry Wark, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, deliver a presentation at the exclusive AWS event for life sciences leaders who are driving research through data. Barry’s talk, titled “Optimizing Data Stores on AWS,” showcased how Ovation partners with Amazon Omics to securely and efficiently store, query, and deliver linked omics and phenotypic data to life sciences customers at scale.

Ovation’s Mission and Data Delivery

At Ovation, our mission is to advance human health and improve patient outcomes by enabling the use of human multi-omic data linked to phenotypic data at scale for researchers. We understand that the ease, quality, and speed of data delivery are vital to achieving this mission. From the outset, Ovation recognized that data alone does not possess inherent value; researchers must be able to convert data into analytics and insights. Furthermore, they should access these insights without being burdened by the complexities of setting up and maintaining a data infrastructure.

This is why Ovation ensures accessing and analyzing our de-identified, linked omics and phenotypic data is both reliable and cost-efficient via AWS Data Exchange. Barry demonstrated how researchers can directly ingest Ovation omics and phenotypic data into their own environment. Data can be automatically imported into a data lake and Amazon Omics’ variant store using AWS Step Functions and AWS Lake Formation. Researchers can immediately use Amazon SageMaker or any other analytics tool to build and deploy multiple AI or machine learning models on the data and drive insights such as the relationship between patient omics profile and disease risk, disease progress, or therapy response.

Real-Life Example: Ovation’s Work with Life Sciences Researchers

Barry illustrated Ovation’s work in practice by highlighting a sample project for life sciences researchers. This project involved delivering a linked genome, transcriptome, and phenotype dataset to identify genetic risk factors and disease biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 

Ovation’s rich dataset includes patient demographics, clinical data (including pathology reports), Variant Call Files (VCF) associated with 30x depth whole genome sequencing, and differential expression (RNA-Seq) from diseased and normal tissue. Note: Any genomic data that wasn’t immediately available could be promptly sequenced and added to the data store by utilizing samples from our diverse biobank, which comprises over 1.53 million consented samples.

 

Key Takeaways for Life Sciences R&D Executives

Barry concluded his talk with several clear takeaways for life sciences R&D executives:

• Technological advancements in healthcare cloud computing and data analytics have significantly enhanced the quality and speed of insights that can be derived from omics data linked to deep phenotypic data.
• With the rapid decline in the cost of sequencing and the increased usefulness and accessibility of human omics data, life sciences companies must establish streamlined and effective omics data strategies to position themselves for success. One effective strategy is to implement a program that spans horizontally across therapeutic areas (beyond oncology) and vertically through the data funnel, from acquisition to final analysis.
• Centralized omics and phenotypic data stores benefit individual analytical use cases. Life sciences researchers achieve optimal efficiency by investing in large omics data providers that can supply required linkable data across therapeutic areas and use cases, regardless of the type of data and the sequencing depth needed. By working with such providers, scientists can quickly access the data they require as their research progresses and their needs change. Access to data will no longer impede researchers’ progress, allowing them to focus on using that data to answer their research questions.

At Ovation, we’re proud to be at the forefront of enabling researchers to harness the full potential of omics data. By leveraging our expertise and collaborating with AWS, we’re empowering life sciences companies to achieve groundbreaking insights and drive transformative discoveries. Contact our team to learn more.

To learn more about Ovation’s work with AWS, visit our data available on AWS Data Exchange and read our case study on how NAFLD genomic data delivered through AWS show variants that increase risk of comorbidities. Plus, you can check out Amazon’s recap of the event on their blog.