In a recent blog post, we explored how phased genotypes provide crucial insights by separating variants into distinct haplotypes—groups of alleles inherited together from a single parent. We also discussed how the combined impact of multiple variants within the same gene can significantly differ from their individual effects. However, accurately assessing the joint impact of these in-phase variants is a… Read more »
Our customers asked for a step-by-step tutorial for navigating a pharmacogenomic (PGx) workflow in VarSeq, and we are happy to have it delivered! Our brand new PGx tutorial can be found on our website, along with our other VarSeq tutorials. You can also follow this link. Like our other famous tutorials, this one will provide example data, or you may… Read more »
In the last year, we have seen a surge in customers moving to whole genome sequencing. Not only does whole genome sequencing provide unparalleled gene coverage compared to whole exome, but depending on the kind of sequencing, you may expect to see additional file types as well. For example, our partners at PacBio will provide an additional VCF containing copy… Read more »
We are pleased to announce new training materials are available for multi-sample workflows in VarSeq! Specifically, we have a New Carrier Screening Tutorial and New Onboarding and Training guides for Carrier Screening Analysis in VarSeq, and Clinical Evaluation and Carrier Status Reporting in VSClinical. This blog gives an overview of what the user can expect to encounter when working through… Read more »
The latest VarSeq release offers enhanced control over genome browse visualization computations. These computations, which are responsible for computing and caching the aggregate view of tracks within GenomeBrowse, are now more flexible. Typically, these tracks create files with the “.covtsf” extension and are used for zoomed-out density views of sources like VCFs and BAMs. Previously, the computation would commence automatically… Read more »
Recently, we have written a couple of blogs that were talking about the use of Evaluation Scripts in VSClinical workflows, in particular for the AMP workflow. Evaluation scripts were first introduced to VSClinical AMP in VarSeq 2.3.0 and VarSeq 2.4.0 welcomed evaluation scripts to the ACMG Workflow. Evaluation scripts are a nifty way to customize your workflow and say import… Read more »
Variant interpretation is a critical aspect of any clinical NGS workflow. VarSeq assessment catalogs are a tool used to save variants and associated variant information for easy tracking and retrieval of completed variant interpretations. As variant interpretations stack up and classifications are saved, storing in assessment catalogs makes it easy to automatically fill in a previous interpretation if the variant… Read more »
In recent weeks, GenomeBrowse capabilities have had a sudden resurgence of interest among our customers. To support this, the FAS team wanted to share with you several under-utilized GenomeBrowse plotting tricks. First, let’s cover plotting a BED file for easy track viewing. The first step is launching a GenomeBrowse window by clicking the + button and selecting GenomeBrowse (Figure 1)… Read more »
Explore the evolving landscape of genomic analysis, transitioning from targeted gene panels to whole genome sequencing. A recent trend with our customers has been to expand their workflows from small panel sequencing analyses to larger whole exome and genome sequencing analyses. The decreasing cost of sequencing has made this a rather common request. Although more data allows for a greater… Read more »
Use the force of evaluation scripts to automate and customize your VSClinical ACMG workflow in VarSeq 2.4.0. VarSeq 2.3.0 came packed with new features! Most notably, VarSeq variant analysis expanded to support the import and annotation of structural variant files, and the AMP cancer workflow in VSClinical gained new functionality with the addition of evaluation scripts which help automate and… Read more »
Unlock the potential of VarSeq for efficient analysis of structural variants, providing robust annotation, filtering, and interpretation of intricate genetic variations. While the analysis of structural variants (SVs) is crucial for understanding the genetic basis of disease, the process of interpreting these variations can be a challenging and complex task. Structural variant callers typically store rearrangements in VCF files, which… Read more »
Discover how soft clip visualization can help you identify structural variants in your research and improve the accuracy of your findings. Soft clipping is a common technique in sequence alignment used to remove bases from the ends of reads that do not align with the reference sequence. Removing these bases typically improves alignment accuracy. However, when multiple reads are soft… Read more »
Unlocking the intricacies of fusion representations is crucial for understanding the impact of complex genetic rearrangements on gene function and disease development. In the most recent release of VarSeq, we added support for the import of complex rearrangements from VCF files, which typically encode rearrangements using breakend notation. This powerful notation is capable of describing the full spectrum of structural… Read more »
A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a BED File from RefSeq for Accurate Data Analysis Our FAS team has received a flurry of inquiries recently, asking how to run coverage statistics on their projects without a pre-defined BED file. We’re here to help! To analyze sample coverage statistics, you’ll need a BAM or CRAM file that displays the read depth coverage… Read more »
Revolutionize Your Somatic Variant Analysis with Our Cutting-Edge Template for Annotation and Filtering in VarSeq Golden Helix is excited to share our new Comprehensive Cancer Template for somatic variant annotation and filtering, along with the latest version of our software VarSeq 2.3.0! Our latest VarSeq update was specifically focused on getting up to speed with multiple aspects of somatic variant… Read more »
VSClinical AMP Matching of Interpretations In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of the VSClinical AMP interpretation workflow. At the heart of this process lies the task of annotating cancer biomarkers with the correct interpretations based on the classification of the tumor and the type and scope of the biomarker. This is a crucial step in understanding… Read more »
Golden Helix provides extensive resources to help our users who are just getting started and address any issues they may encounter as they become more familiar with our software. Our resources are constantly updated and are tailored to the needs of our users. If you’re facing a problem, it’s likely that others have encountered it as well, and we’ve included… Read more »
Variant normalization is essentially reducing the representation of a variant to its canonical representation. Variant normalization ensures that the way a variant is represented is parsimonious and left-aligned and can also refer to splitting variants into their allelic primitives. VarSeq normalizes variants by default, but we offer users the option to forego one or more aspects of variant normalization. This… Read more »
The ACMG classification guidelines for variant pathogenicity are as ubiquitous as they are complicated to implement. They play a consistent and evolving role in the standard workflows of many experts in the next-generation sequencing field, both in the clinical and research space. Furthermore, they can be effectively applied in both somatic and germline workflows. Hence, consistent and auditable methods for… Read more »
The ability to analyze copy number variants (CNVs) is an important aspect of any clinical or research workflow. While calling CNVs can be a challenging engineering problem, we are thrilled by our capacity to detect, analyze, and catalog CNVs all in the same place with VarSeq-CNV. In this blog, we will dive into the particulars of detecting CNVs with gene… Read more »
