Illumina DRAGEN Tier 3 Throughput License and v4 Server

The NHGRI Undiagnosed Diseases Program (UDP) requires both the Illumina DRAGEN 500,000Gb annual throughput license and the Illumina DRAGEN Server v4 to maintain secure, compliant, and high performance secondary analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data. DRAGEN serves as an essential computational supplement when UDP’s sequencing workload exceeds CIT High Performance Computing Center allocations, enabling timely processing of whole genome, whole exome, and transcriptome datasets for patients with rare and unresolved diseases. The current DRAGEN server, procured in 2017, has reached end of support.

Its CentOS 7 operating system lost vendor support and security updates on June 30, 2024, increasing operational risk. In addition, the legacy dual Intel Xeon processors, 512 Gb RAM, and first generation FPGA acceleration hardware cannot support updated DRAGEN pipelines, including pangenome references and improved germline/somatic variant calling workflows. These limitations reduce analytical accuracy, throughput, and system stability.

To prevent analysis delays, maintain compliance with NIH IT security requirements, and sustain mission critical genomic interpretation capacity, the UDP must acquire both the updated throughput license and the next generation DRAGEN Server v4.