VSClinical: The details you should know

         July 19, 2018
ClinVar

The recent release of VSClinical gives users the ability to evaluate variants based on the 33 criteria according to the American College of Medical Genetic and Genomics (ACMG) guidelines. This feature leverages a variety of variant sequencing evidence including population data, functional data, and computational predictions while providing rich visualizations and auto recommendations to help answer challenging criteria. This highly… Read more »

Functional Predictions & Conservation Scores in VSClinical

         May 17, 2018

In our previous webcast, we discussed the splice site algorithms for clinical genomics within VSClinical. We took it a step further in yesterday’s webcast and looked at the functional predictions and conservation scores. We had a great turnout for this event with lots of great questions from the attendees. I’d like to recap our Q&A for anyone else who might… Read more »

Top 10 Analytics Solution Providers – Pharma Tech Outlook

         May 15, 2018
Top 10

We are incredibly honored to be recognized as one of the Top 10 Analytics Solution Providers of 2018 by Pharma Tech Outlook. “Through innovative products, Golden Helix has been simplifying the clinical workflows and genomic testing for numerous labs. For instance, Prevention Genetics, a clinical testing laboratory offering genetic and DNA banking services with the largest menu of gene sequencing… Read more »

VSClinical Webcast Q&A

         April 20, 2018

This week we launched VSClincial with our first webcast to show our powerful new way to perform variant interpretation following the ACMG guidelines. Our audience asked a lot of great questions on the new product and I’d like to highlight a few here. Can VSClinical run on a laptop and/or a locked down environment? Like all of Golden Helix products, you have… Read more »

New & Improved ClinVar Annotations

         March 13, 2018
ClinVar

ClinVar is the NCBI variant database that focuses on the categorizing of variant alleles and their interpretation from a clinical standpoint. This has made it a great resource, especially for those seeking variant allele disease correlations and pathogenicity. And this all worked fairly well, but it was changed… Previously, the ClinVar variant track annotation took some time to curate due… Read more »

Small-Lab VarSeq PowerPack

         March 6, 2018
VarSeq PowerPack

Ready to take your analysis to the next level? Our Small-Lab VarSeq PowerPack enables users to move their analysis from FASTQ to clinical reporting through one streamlined pipeline. Here’s what’s included: VarSeq VarSeq is an intuitive, integrated software solution for tertiary analysis. With VarSeq you can automate your workflows and analyze variants for gene panels, exomes, and whole genomes. VS-CNV… Read more »

Exclusive Look at Sentieon TNscope Q&A

         March 1, 2018
VS-CNV Annotations

Sentieon TNscope is a platform dedicated to the identification of tumor-normal somatic variants including single nucleotide variation (SNV), indel, as well as structure variations (SVs). In our recent webcast, Dr. Donald Freed, Bioinformatics Scientist at Sentieon, gave viewers an exclusive overview of the platform. The webcast generated a lot of great questions which I would like to share with you… Read more »

Using NGS to detect CNVs in familial hypercholesterolemia Q&A

         February 19, 2018

First-place Abstract Competition Winner, Michael Iacocca, shared his research with the Golden Helix Community during our February webcast ‘Using NGS to detect CNVs in familial hypercholesterolemia‘. In this webcast, he gave a great explanation on how our CNV caller aided his team in their research. If you were unable to join us for the event, you can find a recording… Read more »

How we’re curating OMIM: It’s not as easy as you think

         February 13, 2018

Relating human phenotypes to genotypes is the name of the game with OMIM, and as their website says, “is intended for use primarily by physicians and other professionals concerned with genetic disorders, by genetics researchers, and by advanced students in science and medicine.” The Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (or OMIM) was originally created by Dr. Victor A. McKusick in… Read more »

1st Place Abstract Competition Winner

         February 6, 2018
CNV calling - Abstract Winner

Our abstract competition is one of my favorite events because of the learning opportunity it provides our team. Each applicant’s submission tells us a unique story about how our software is helping users conduct their research. This year’s competition didn’t disappoint bringing a new round of fascinating studies to our attention. However, with all these great abstracts came the difficult… Read more »

Cited in 1,200+ Publications

         February 1, 2018
1,200+ publications

Golden Helix is fueled by our customers’ success; every product, every feature, every line of code is created to aid our users and their quest for discovery in the scientific community. As of today, our products have assisted users with 1,200+ publications. A process we know to be long, difficult and incredibly rewarding, it’s an absolute pleasure to be cited… Read more »

10 Most Innovative Pharma and Life Sciences Solutions Providers 2018

         January 29, 2018
innovative

Awarded one of the top biotech companies Insight Success recently published its annual Pharma and Life Special Edition announcing the 10 most innovative solution providers of 2018. We are incredibly honored to have received this award and being recognized amongst the top biotech companies! You can access the publication featuring my interview with the editor here: http://www.insightssuccess.com/golden-helix-helping-researchers-clinicians-understand-role-cnvs-human-health-disease/. I have outlined some… Read more »

Using GRCh38 for Clinical Interpretation: Now Possible with Our Custom LiftOver Tracks

         January 23, 2018

There are many good reasons why the pursuit of the highest quality genomic interpretation would lead you to the latest human reference. It is more complete and fixes incorrect or partially missing genes that have known implications for human disease. While most major projects cataloging human populations have plans to re-do all their genomic alignments to the new human reference… Read more »

Revisiting the Five Splice Site Algorithms used in Clinical Genetics

         January 16, 2018

Interpretation of variants in accordance with the ACMG guidelines requires that variants near canonical splice boundaries be evaluated for their potential to disrupt gene splicing [1]. The five most common tools for splice site detection are NNSplice, MaxEntScan, GeneSplicer, HumanSplicingFinder, and SpliceSiteFinder-like. Because these algorithms have been made easily accessible in the bioinformatics tool Alamut, they have been canonized for… Read more »

Top Webcasts of 2017

         January 9, 2018

2017 was an incredibly prosperous year for Golden Helix; we released a handful of new features, announced new partnerships and completed our end-to-end architecture for clinical testing labs. Our webcast series has become a very popular way for our community to stay up-to-date with our new capabilities and best practices in genetic analysis using our software. We had three webcast… Read more »

Robarts Research Institute & VS-CNV

         January 5, 2018

One of our main focuses in 2017 was VS-CNV which allows clinicians to directly call CNVs in target regions quicker, easier and more affordably than CMA or MLPA testing. Our clients at Robarts Research Institute shared their recent publication with me which confirms that our time and dedication to our CNV capabilities was well worth it. I am delighted to… Read more »

Bring the Value of VS-CNV to Genomic Research in SVS

         January 4, 2018
Eigenvalue Decomposition

The Golden Helix SNP & Variation Suite (SVS) platform is a powerful and versatile set of tools and algorithms for performing genomic research. That research spans from data originating on genotype micro-arrays to next-generation sequencing. While the majority of SVS users start with genotype data on their samples, any genomic information across a cohort can be used in our various… Read more »

What to expect from Golden Helix in 2018

         January 2, 2018

First of all, I wish you a prosperous 2018 along with happiness and health for you and your loved ones. This next year comes with lots of anticipation. We at Golden Helix are looking forward to another year of growth and innovation. Over the last few years, we were able to build a large following of clients in the clinical space…. Read more »

The Clinical Utility of the 1000 Genomes Variant Frequencies

         December 19, 2017

We have a lot to thank the 1000 Genomes project for in the genomics community. By the collaborate efforts of many researchers and organizations, the project produced not only the first catalog of rare human variation but in the process standardized many things we take for granted, such as the VCF and BAM file formats. The variant frequencies of the… Read more »