Golden Helix Blog

2019 Abstract Competition Winners

Feb 25, 2019

We would like to thank everyone who entered our 2019 Abstract Competition. This event is an excellent opportunity for our team to hear the unique ways Golden Helix software is being applied around the world. We had a number of remarkable entries this year which made our selection process a…

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Clinical Variant Analysis: Part II

Feb 25, 2019

Clinical Variant Analysis – Classification Criteria of Pathogenic Variants The ACMG Guidelines are utilized for the interpretation of variants. They are primarily applied to diagnose suspected inherited (primarily Mendelian) disorders in a clinical diagnostic laboratory setting. While evaluating variants no matter what the origin, it is important to distinguish between variants…

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Clinical Variant Analysis: Part I

Feb 19, 2019

Clinical Variant Analysis – Applying ACMG Guidelines to Analyze Germline Diseases The clinical interpretation of genetic variants is time-consuming and requires strict attention to detail. Clinicians must thoroughly review any variants that could potentially cause disease using a complex set of guidelines. There are guidelines for the interpretation of variants…

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New eBook Release: Clinical Variant Analysis

Feb 18, 2019

I am excited to announce the release of my new eBook “Clinical Variant Analysis – Applying ACMG Guidelines to Analyze Germline Diseases“! You can download your complimentary by clicking on the button below. The clinical interpretation of variants in Next-Gen Sequencing is a quickly evolving field, and sound genomic interpretation has never…

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Case Study: Odense University Hospital

Feb 7, 2019

The Department of Clinical Genetics at Odense University Hospital offers a variety of genetic analyses for families of syndromic children and other inherited conditions, averaging 4,000 genetic analyses per year. Their casework spans variant analysis across a broad range of inherited conditions. In 2016, the lab decided to introduce whole…

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How To: VarSeq VCF Import

Feb 5, 2019

The Beginning of Your Tertiary Analysis VarSeq is designed to be your NGS tertiary analysis solution providing users simple but in-depth means of exploring gene panel, exome, and whole genome variants. For those not accustomed to the VarSeq software, the main import file for variant analysis is the VCF. Those…

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Top-Quality GWAS Analysis: Part V

Jan 28, 2019

As our final part of the ‘Top-Quality GWAS Analysis’ blog series, we will be giving a summary of the values behind GWAS quality control and quality assessment. Performing GWAS can provide insight into the association of genetic variants with traits and complex disorders. Any novel insights into marker-phenotype associations need…

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Top-Quality GWAS Analysis: Part IV

Jan 24, 2019

Population Stratification This article is going to cover how to factor for population stratification in your association test to continue our blog series on top quality GWAS analysis (additional articles for this series are located at the bottom of this blog). Quality control steps up to this point have included…

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Top-Quality GWAS Analysis: Part III

Jan 22, 2019

Sample Relatedness Pruning your data based on Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) values and filtering for sample “relatedness” are ideal quality assurance steps following the marker and sample quality filtering described in Part II of this blog series. The value of running an Identity by Decent estimation not only allows you to…

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Top-Quality GWAS Analysis: Part II

Jan 18, 2019

Eliminate Low-Quality Samples and Markers In Part I of this GWAS Analysis series, Dr. Eli Sward provided us with a great overview on the value SVS provides in managing the quality of your SNP or NGS data to maintain the high power and accuracy of your GWAS. He also gave…

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Top-Quality GWAS Analysis: Part I

Jan 16, 2019

Importance of Quality in Association Tests SVS is a research application platform provided by Golden Helix that enables an array of computational analyses including genome-wide association studies (GWAS). GWAS is an observational study that can provide insight into the association of genetic variants with traits and complex disorders. The foundation…

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Heading to PAG 2019

Jan 10, 2019

Our team is more than ready to escape the cold at Golden Helix HQ for an eventful week at PAG XXVII in San Diego, CA! If you are attending the conference, we hope you will stop by our booth and say hello to the team: Dr. Andreas Scherer, Darby Kammeraad,…

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What to expect from Golden Helix in 2019!

Jan 3, 2019

Happy New Year. I trust you had a relaxing time over the holidays with family and friends as well as a great start into 2019. Golden Helix certainly had a landmark year. There were many highlights that actually shaped the direction for us in the years to come. Please let…

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Considerations When Calling CNVs on Shallow Whole Genomes

Dec 20, 2018

We are happy to announce that our latest version of SVS includes the ability to call CNVs on low read depth Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) data. Designed for calling large cytogenetic events, this algorithm can detect chromosomal aneuploidy events and other large events spanning one or more bands of a…

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Top 10 Biotechnology Solution Providers 2018 – CIO Applications

Dec 19, 2018

We are honored to announce that we have been named one of the Top 10 Biotechnology Solution Providers for the second year in a row by CIO Applications. We are at a point where precision medicine is taking off.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has started to reimburse…

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VarSeq PhoRank Part: 2 Sample PhoRank Gene Ranking

Dec 18, 2018

The PhoRank tool in VarSeq is further explored in this post by looking at the sample-specific capability. VarSeq PhoRank Part: 1 Variant Phorank Gene Ranking showed how the PhoRank algorithm could be applied to all the variants in a VarSeq project, regardless of the number of (or difference in) samples.…

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VarSeq PhoRank Part 1: Variant PhoRank Gene Ranking

Dec 13, 2018

One of the main goals of clinical genomics labs is to identify problematic variants in affected individuals. One tool to assist in this search is the phenotype driven variant ontological re-ranking tool in VarSeq called PhoRank. A common situation facing clinicians is sorting through thousands of variants provided by an…

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Optimized Breeding Selection via Genomic Prediction

Dec 11, 2018

What is Genomic Prediction? Genomic prediction is an algorithm widely used to improve desirable phenotypic traits in agriculture. For example, the cattle industry uses genomic prediction to improve beef quality and palatability as well as improve dairy production (1,2). By using genomic prediction, researchers can minimize multiple expenses in breeding…

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Our Philosophy on Quality in Product Testing and Development

Dec 6, 2018

High product quality is a foundational characteristic of a useful and successful product. Quality testing, therefore, is a necessary, albeit an open-ended task. It can at times seem a limitless undertaking in the present using experience from the past to improve the future. Nonetheless, it is approached as a development…

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GRCh38 Liftover: Ensuring Top Quality Variant Analysis

Nov 27, 2018

In a recent webcast, our VP of Product and Engineering Gabe Rudy gave us insight into the current capability and benefits to lifting over to the GRCh38 assembly. Golden Helix fully supports this transition into the most recent reference assembly and have developed our tools on both the 38 and…

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