Scheduling of biological samples for DNA sequencing

In a DNA sequencing workflow, a biological sample has to pass through multiple process steps. Two consecutive steps are hydroshearing and library construction. Samples arrive randomly into the inventory and are to complete both processes before their due dates. The research project is to decide the optimal sequence of samples to go through these two processes subject to operational constraints. Two approaches, namely, heuristic and integer programming have been pursued in this thesis. A heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the scheduling problem. A variant of the problem involving deterministic arrivals of samples is also considered for comparison purposes. Comparison tests between the two approaches are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed heuristic for the original problem and its variant. Sensitivity analysis of the schedule to parameters of the problem is also conducted when using both approaches.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computation for Design and Optimization Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Authors dc:creator

• Hu, Yuwei, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Lim, Chin Soon

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stephen Graves.

• Computation for Design and Optimization Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/54214