ST LOUIS, MO (July 8, 2014) – Appistry, Inc., a leading provider of tools, software, and services that bring the power of genomics to next-generation medicine, today launched its inaugural Appistry Pipeline Challenge. The competition will provide $70,000 of software and hardware to aid one team in developing and executing an innovative next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis pipeline. Any U.S.-based researcher in any organization is eligible to enter the competition, which runs from July 7–August 15, 2014.

 “If we’ve learned anything while helping our customers implement production-grade pipelines—pipelines capable of being used reliably and repeatedly in a controlled, clinical setting—it’s that they are difficult to build,” said Dr. Rich Mazzarella, chief scientific officer at Appistry and one of the judges for the Appistry Pipeline Challenge. “It requires expertise in everything from bioinformatics to high-performance computing, and not everyone has access to resources that can streamline development and deployment. Appistry is leveling the playing field by spurring creativity and helping one team transform its innovative idea into a solution that can drive clinical research and genomically enhanced medicine.”

The prize package from Appistry comprises an one-year license to commercial versions of industry-leading NGS analysis tools from the Broad Institute, which includes the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK), MuTect, ContEst, and Somatic Indel Detector; and Appistry’s Ayrris® On Ramp Program for NGS analysis, which provides a developer workstation with installed software for managing tools, data, and pipelines; preconfigured analysis tools and starter pipelines; and eight hours of training from Appistry.

A panel of judges will determine the competition’s winner based on the quality of the overall entry; the need for a solution to the problem the project addresses; the innovation displayed in the tools selected and their use in the pipeline; and the impact the solution will have on clinical research or precision medicine. The winner will be announced on August 28, 2014.

Appistry will enable potential entrants to learn more about the Appistry Pipeline Challenge and ask questions during a live webinar on Thursday, July 24, 2014; register by visiting https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/693194248. More information about the Appistry Pipeline Challenge is available at appistry.com/contest, or by following the contest at #PickMyPipeline on Twitter.

About Appistry: Appistry, Inc., brings the power of genomics to next-generation medicine by making genomics data easier for researchers and clinicians to act on. Appistry CloudDx provides cost-effective access to established, laboratory developed tests so that clinically relevant genomics-based information can be usable by any physician, anywhere. Appistry also empowers researchers by providing world-class bioinformatics tools, cloud services, and software that streamline the analysis of next-generation sequencing data and provide easy scale for moving research-developed pipelines into production. Learn more by connecting with Appistry on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.