Golden Helix Blog

Large Scale PCA Analysis in SVS – Webcast Q&A Follow Up

Jan 26, 2022

Thank you to those who attended our recent webcast by Gabe Rudy, Large Scale PCA Analysis in SVS. For those who could not attend, you can find a link to the recording here. While this webcast discussed methods for principal components analysis (PCA) in SVS, including the new capability for…

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How to Create Your Own CNV Frequency Catalog

Jan 20, 2022

Global population frequency catalogs like 1kG Phase 3, gnomAD, DGV, and others are excellent resources for identifying rare variants in your copy number variant (CNV) analysis. However, they are not exhaustive, and the reality is a lot of variants that are missing from global population frequency catalogs are still common…

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Highlights from Advanced Report Customization in VSClinical Webcast: Somatic Reports

Jan 6, 2022

In our previous blog, we covered the highlights of our Advanced Report Customization in VSClinical webcast in the context of germline clinical reports. Now, we bring you the next of the series: somatic clinical reports. In the recent webcast, Advanced Report Customization, we covered a range of somatic-focused clinical reports,…

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What to Expect From GnomAD v3.1.2

Jan 5, 2022

In this blog post, I am very excited to talk about The Broad Institute’s release of the latest version of gnomAD, v 3.1.2, which is now available for use as an annotation source in your SVS or VarSeq projects. For VarSeq users, I also want to point out that gnomAD…

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What to Expect in 2022

Jan 3, 2022

Happy New Year to all! I hope that you were able to enjoy quality time over the holidays with family and friends. It is time to begin discussing our plans for the new year again, but I would first like to review a few highlights from 2021 that laid the…

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SVS 8.9.1 Release

Dec 28, 2021

We would like to announce that a new version of SVS has been released! The headlining feature of the SVS 8.9.1 release was new functionality for Large Data Principle Component Analysis. A detailed description of this new feature can be explored in this recent blog post: Finding a Few Principal…

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Using ACMG Secondary Findings v3.0 List in VarSeq and VSClinical

Dec 21, 2021

As the number of genes on a gene panel increases, there is the possibility of picking up variants of medical significance that are not related to the primary indication for the test. Especially with large gene panels, exomes, and genomes, it is medically and ethically important to report variants that…

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VarSeq’s New and Improved Manual

Dec 16, 2021

I’m sure everyone’s favorite winter activity is getting cozy next to a fire, with a nice cup of tea, and reading the VarSeq instruction manual, right? Of course all VarSeq users have read the manual, but if you have not had the chance to review this captivating read, let me…

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Consideration when using CADD in your NGS Workflow

Dec 15, 2021

VarSeq serves as a streamlined approach to handle the rare variant analysis typically carried out for your NGS data analysis. Our team at Golden Helix seeks to simplify this process by automating the curation of staple databases needed for filtering and evaluation of clinically relevant variants. The goal we seek…

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Highlights from Advanced Report Customization in VSClinical Webcast: Germline Reports

Dec 14, 2021

When it comes to clinical variant analysis for germline variants using ACMG guidelines, we understand that the clinical report is essentially the receipt for your services for the patient. In our recent webcast, Advanced Report Customization in VSClinical, we displayed several examples of report templates to show off the range…

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VS-CNV Command-Line CNV Tool

Dec 9, 2021

If you stay current on the developments of Golden Helix features, you are aware of the substantial evolution of our copy number detection and evaluation capabilities in VarSeq. The process of CNV detection and evaluation is typically handled through the VarSeq graphic user interface. However, in some cases, users benefit…

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Alternate Allele Frequency and VCF File Format

Dec 7, 2021

VCF file format comes with a lot of interesting quality assurance and statistics fields that can be used for filtering in VarSeq. Open your files in a text editor to see all the fields that are available in your files, each field will have a header line with a description…

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VarSeq 2.2.4 Release

Nov 30, 2021

We are very excited to announce that just last week, we released VarSeq 2.2.4! In the past few months, we have been building the excitement for the 2.2.4 version of VarSeq with several webcasts in which we describe some of the headlining features in detail such as the new support…

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Breaking Down ACMG CNV Guidelines in VSClinical

Nov 25, 2021

In February 2020, the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) and the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) published a joint consensus on standards for the interpretation and reporting of copy number variants (CNVs) ranging from large CNVs spanning multiple genes to small intragenic events1. The guidelines consist of over 80 different…

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Highlights From Our Golden Helix CancerKB Webcast

Nov 24, 2021

Thank you to everyone who attended Using Golden Helix CancerKB to Accelerate NGS Cancer Testing! I had a great time showing off Golden Helix CancerKB and how it can enhance NGS analysis in cancer, I certainly hope you enjoyed it! If you were unable to make the live session, we…

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Top FAS Tricks You Wish You Knew When Getting Started with VSClinical

Nov 18, 2021

As a newer member of the Golden Helix FAS Team I, like many of our customers, went through a phase of learning the ins, outs, and shortcuts of clicking around the program. In an effort to expedite new users coming up to speed, or to teach some tricks to experienced…

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Validating Your CNV Workflow

Nov 16, 2021

The VarSeq CNV calling algorithm, VS-CNV, is a powerful tool for calling CNVs from the NGS coverage data stored in your BAM files. However, before this algorithm can be deployed in a clinical setting, it must be tuned and validated using data that is representative of your lab’s NGS workflow.…

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Running VSPipeline from a Docker Container

Nov 10, 2021

As a lab or group scales the number of NGS samples analyzed, it is important to automate the sample analysis pipeline from the sequencer to the point where it is ready for a variant scientist or lab personnel to follow the interpretation workflow and draft a clinical report. VSPipeline leverages…

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VarSeq Advanced Reporting Customizations: Part 1

Nov 9, 2021

As we move towards the end of the year, our FAS Team is excited to announce our short blog series highlighting some of the Customization Features in our up-and-coming VarSeq release! The goal of this blog series is to show examples of how generating a clinical report can be customized…

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Customer Publications in October 2021

Oct 28, 2021

The customer-published articles this October cite the range of Golden Helix’s VarSeq annotation range and capability. The following publications feature everything from annotating an Italian nobleman mummy, assisting in identifying mutations in primary congenital and juvenile glaucoma, new mutations associated with muscular dystrophinopathy, and germline variants associated with head and…

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