Next generational sequencing (NGS) technologies, such as Illumina/Solexa, ABI/SOLiD, and Roche/454 Pyrosequencing, are revolutionizing the acquisition of genomic data at relatively low cost. NGS technologies are rapidly changing the approach to complex genomic studies, opening a way to the development of personalized drugs and personalized medicine. NGS technologies use massive throughput sequencing to obtain relatively short-reads. NGS technologies will generate enormous datasets, in which even small genomic projects may generate terabytes of data. Therefore, new computational methods are needed to analyze a wide range of genetic information and to assist data interpretation and downstream applications, including high-throughput polymorphism detections, comparative genomics, prediction of gene function and protein structure, transcriptome analysis, mutation detection and confirmation, genome mapping, and drug design. The creation of large-scale datasets now poses a great computational challenge. It will be imperative to improve software pipelines, so that we can analyze genome data more efficiently.

In this special issue, we attempt to focus on new algorithm approaches, original research, and software tools designed for analysis of NGS-generating data sets. Methods and experiments, demonstrating novel computing platforms, developing new models, presenting new directions for future research, are also welcome. This special issue provides an international forum for researchers to present their developments and ideas in the field, with particular emphasis on the technical and observational results obtained within the recent years.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• High performance computing technologies for NGS data analysis and applications
• Cloud computing for next-generation sequencing techniques and applications
• Novel approach for biomedicine development based on NGS data
• Database technologies for analysis of NGS datasets
• Software tools for NGS data analysis
• Bioinformatics models, methods, and algorithms for NGS data
• Mathematical and statistical methods for analysis of NGS data
• Novel approaches for analysis of metagenomics generated by NGS
• New sequencing technology for transcriptome analysis -RNA sequencing in one cell
• NGS for environmental DNA analysis
• NGS in aging research