I’d like to take a moment to announce the release of updated gene tracks for the GRCh38 genome assembly! Gene annotation tracks are essential to all VarSeq projects and workflows. Whether your favorite gene track is Ensembl or RefSeq, both sources have been updated and released and can be used for variant annotation. These gene tracks are used to annotate… Read more »
When doing next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis in VarSeq, the fundamental goal is to develop efficient ways to filter through your NGS data. If you are just getting started with Varseq, a pre-designed project template can really come in handy for variant filtering! This blog series will cover a number of template design recommendations for variant filtering on data types ranging… Read more »
We at Golden Helix thoroughly enjoy seeing our software being utilized to solve problems and assist in the diagnosis of hereditary diseases. It is gratifying to be notified of customer publications in which they are doing precisely this. While there have been numerous publications this month showcasing Golden Helix software being applied, below are a few that stuck out specifically…. Read more »
Although best known for its auto-generation of custom reports, VarSeq comes with a slew of options for exporting your data. In this blog, we will review some of the lesser-known methods for exporting your data into usable formats. These four export options can all be found under the Export tab at the upper left corner of your VarSeq interface (Figure… Read more »
Tumor profiling via next generation sequencing (NGS) often reveals secondary germline variants that may constitute important incidental findings. In May 2021, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) released an updated policy statement for reporting incidental findings in exome and genome sequencing data along with a corresponding list of genes. These recommendations state that laboratories should report pathogenic… Read more »
VarSeq software again takes center stage in our recent publications for February. It is our great honor to be a part of the groundbreaking discoveries highlighted below as well as the many others too numerous to include in this blog post! We are happy to contribute to scientific findings from all our analysis platforms, but we are especially proud of… Read more »
Thanks to all those who attended the recent webcast by Dr. Rana Smalling, “Integrating Custom Gene Panels for Variant Annotations”. If you were unable to attend or would like to recap, here is a link to watch the broadcast. We covered a lot of content regarding virtual gene panels, and there were several questions submitted during our Q&A session that… Read more »
2022 has started off with a significant number of customers publishing their research. We saw several customers utilizing various softwares within our suite, but the most prominent being VarSeq. VarSeq is an intuitive, integrated software solution for tertiary analysis. With VarSeq you can automate your workflows and perform variant analysis for gene panels, exomes, and whole genomes. Understanding genomic data… Read more »
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 variants. At the same time, CNVs that are identified by… Read more »
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 v3.1.2 can also be used as a population frequency in… Read more »
The articles we saw this November and December cited a wide range of applications of our product suite. The following publications feature usage of our SNP & Variation Suite, VSClinical, and VarSeq products. We see them being utilized to identify loci associated with facial eczema in New Zealand sheep, somatic mutation response impact, and assisting in estimating breast cancer risk… Read more »
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 may be actionable to the patient. These include variants implicating… Read more »
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 entice all of you to do so by announcing that… Read more »
VarSeq serves as a streamlined approach to handle the rare variant analysis typically carried out for your next-generation sequencing data. 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 to accomplish with our software is to provide ease in… Read more »
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 from running this process via the command-line interface. Fortunately, Golden… Read more »
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 of its content. See the VCF Specifications to help with… Read more »
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 for Gene Panels and Gene Lists, PhoRank Clinical, and Customized… Read more »
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 have added the on-demand recording to our site, or we… Read more »
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 the core VarSeq capability to create reproducible test-specific workflows through… Read more »
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 to accommodate a wide range of functionality. Our December webcast,… Read more »
