Research Partnership Between Google and Autism Speaks Begins

The world's largest genomic database of sequenced gene information will help provide information for family members and patients living with the Autism Spectrum Disorder. The collaboration between Google and Autism speaks officially took off on December 9, 2013. The joint project is designed to make major breakthroughs on the study of Autism.

The project named "MSSNG," is pronounced Missing. The vowels in the word are missing to represent that missing knowledge about Autism. The project is "the most promising autism research that's ever been done," President of Autism Speak, Liz Field said. She also noted that the project would supplement research that has already been done concerned DNA connections to the Autism spectrum.

Over 10,000 families who are living with Autism could get their questions about the disorder through this DNA sequencing project.

Google Cloud makes it possible for the information to be freely accessible to researchers all over the world. The open resource will be available to scientists all over. Scientists will be able to access and share research. The program brings science's greatest minds from across the globe together to study trillions of data points in one database.

The program, previously called The Autism Speaks Ten Thousand Genomes Program (AUT10K), represents a huge milestone for pushing genomic Autism research forward. The potential for breakthroughs regarding causes, diagnosis and subtypes are exponential.

Autism Speaks is pushing for a social media campaign to help raise awareness for the project. The campaign asks supporters to remove the vowels from their Twitter display names. You can do this by logging into your account, clicking on "Edit" and then "Name." Once users change their name, users are encouraged to post the following: We're missing a lot of information on autism. Support @AutismSpeaks project #MSSNG by removing letters from your name: http://mss.ng.

This massive project requires a lot of funding to help sequence the collection of genomes. The MSSNG Project requires $25 million dollars by the end of the next year to continue pursuing the advances. The database contains 10,000 DNA samples. Each DNA sample contains over 3 billion strands of DNA, which totals roughly 3 trillion total strands of data. The data in the program is equivalent to the amount of data accrued watching 13-years of high-definition television, continuously.

"Millions of people living with autism today need answers. The MSSNG project is the search for those answers, and we are going to find them. The best research minds in the world are going to mine this database of DNA so we can uncover and understand the various subtypes of autism. Then we can get to work developing customized treatments and therapies so we can improve the quality of life for so many people who need help," Field said.

To donate to MSSNG Project visit: http://www.mss.ng/donate