{"id":8683,"date":"2016-03-03T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=8683"},"modified":"2018-07-18T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T20:05:18","slug":"genbank-the-early-years-of-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2016\/03\/03\/genbank-the-early-years-of-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"GenBank & The Early Years of \u201cBig Data\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In cooperation with our colleagues at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)<\/a>, National Library of Medicine (NLM), the NLM\u2019s History of Medicine Division recently acquired the archives of the early history of GenBank<\/a>, the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences. Today <\/em>Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Bruno J. Strasser<\/a>. Dr. Strasser is a professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, an adjunct professor at Yale University, and author of the book <\/em>Collecting Experiments: The New Production of Biomedical Knowledge, forthcoming from University of Chicago Press.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost the number of stars in the Milky Way.\u201d Through this stellar comparison, the National Institutes of Health proudly announced in 2005 that the content of their computerized collection of DNA sequences called GenBank had reached 50 billion bases or units of DNA. Today, it contains far more, over 200 billion bases from over 350,000 different species, making it one of the largest scientific database in the world.<\/p>\n

\"Instructions<\/a>
Detail from a GenBank brochure, ca. 1985
Courtesy National Library of Medicine Acc. 2015-045<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The creation of GenBank, like that of the heavens, was no small achievement. This archival collection of hand-written, type-written, and printed documents deposited at the NLM reveals the first discussions among scientists and science administrators about this new infrastructure, created in 1982, and the first decade of its existence. These papers offer a unique window onto the coming of age of \u201cbig data<\/a>,\u201d of how it is transforming scientific research, and how it led to the \u201copen access<\/a>\u201d movement. Today, as \u201cbig data\u201d is heralded as the \u201cnew oil\u201d and as our daily online actions are increasingly stored in databases for marketing and other purposes, it is useful to begin reflecting on the history of our information age.<\/p>\n

In the sciences, the challenge of \u201cbig data\u201d arose particularly early and has transformed the way scientific research is done. GenBank has become an indispensable tool for biomedical researchers around the world. This encyclopedia of gene sequences is now a truly collaborative and worldwide effort. It includes the complete genomes of over 3,000 organisms, from humans to zebrafish, from rice to bacteria like E. coli.<\/p>\n