Largely unrelated but MPEG of mp3 fame has just released MPEG-G, a compressed file format for genomic data. Predictably, it's on track to be saddled with patents. Imagine needing proprietary software to view your own genomic data - or for your new doctor to not have the software to read it! Here's one take worth reading on it: http://datageekdom.blogspot.com/2018/09/mpeg-g-ugly.html?m=1

Also there's already a compressed data format called CRAM for this that has some traction and for which MPEG conveniently failed to compare itself to in their paper.