The Challenge
As a pioneer in gene writing, Tessera Therapeutics sought to change the way diseases are treated by perfecting the insertion of short or long messages into any genome. However, managing over 12 terabytes of scientific data across large, cross-functional teams of wet scientists and computational biologists posed a significant challenge. Tessera needed a solution that would ensure their data was findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) to support their mission.
The Solution
Tessera Therapeutics adopted Quilt and Nextflow on AWS to address their data management challenges. They chose Nextflow to automate bioinformatics pipelines and Quilt to provide robust data versioning and lifecycle management. As Yohann Potier, Director of Data Platform at Tessera Therapeutics, stated, 'The advantage of Quilt is data versioning, because we can link to the exact and correct version of any analysis. We adopted Quilt right after adopting Nextflow Tower, to create a better DevOps environment. So for us, Quilt was part of the data maturity process. Now we can really trust the data, and share it with the scientists directly.' This combination allowed Tessera to automatically sweep data from instruments to the cloud, share large datasets via concise Quilt package URLs, and track historical changes with cryptographically verifiable Quilt URLs.
The Results
After integrating Quilt and Nextflow on AWS, Tessera Therapeutics saw significant improvements in their data management processes. The teams gained coherency, knowing precisely which version of the dataset to use, where to find it, and what it contained. Confidence in experimental results was bolstered as data packages, including metadata, charts, and documentation, were sealed and findable via the Quilt web catalog. Control over data access was enhanced with Amazon IAM, ensuring the right people saw the right data at the right time. These improvements were supported by metrics such as managing 12 terabytes of data, enhanced data findability with Amazon OpenSearch Service, and cryptographically verifiable Quilt URLs, all contributing to a more streamlined and trustworthy data environment.
