Category Archives: How to’s and advanced workflows

Applying the Probability Segregation Algorithm for CNV Analysis

         February 4, 2021
Bioinformatics software

There is a multitude of interesting new features that have been incorporated into VarSeq 2.2.2. In this blog, I want to continue the discussion of these features and how each can be incorporated into your workflow, and also discuss the application of the Probability Segregation algorithm for copy number variation (CNV) analysis. The Probability Segregation algorithm is a new algorithm… Read more »

Updates on Splice Site Analysis

         February 2, 2021

Our latest VarSeq release is one of the largest we’ve ever had, boasting an extensive list of new features and improvements. As part of this release, we have dramatically expanded our support for splice site analysis. This includes improvements to our novel splice site algorithm and support for splice site effect prediction along with several other small improvements. Novel Splice… Read more »

VSClinical: Defining Sample Phenotypes

         January 20, 2021

Our recent release of VarSeq 2.2.2 comes with a long list of upgrades and new features. In this blog post, we will demonstrate how defining sample phenotypes are available in VSClinical. One noticeable change is the ACMG guideline variant evaluation in VSClinical. Not only has this interface added CNV guideline evaluation, simplified the reporting process with embedded Microsoft Word and… Read more »

ACGS Guidelines Now Available in VSClinical

         January 7, 2021
ACGS Guidelines Screen Shot

Golden Helix offers a market-leading bioinformatics solution that allows users to evaluate next-generation sequencing variants according to the ACMG and now ACGS guidelines. The ACMG guidelines were created in 2015 and are widely accepted as best practice for the interpretation of sequencing variants throughout the United States (Richard et al 2015).  Very similar are the ACGS guidelines that were developed… Read more »

Need Coverage Statistics? VarSeq Has You Covered!

         December 15, 2020

Curious about how coverage statistics can be used in conjunction with VarSeq? Evaluating the coverage over target regions or whole genomes is essential whether you are working with variant or CNV analysis. VarSeq has had the capability to compute sample level coverage statistics for some time now, but in the 2.2.2 release of VarSeq, there are some new features that… Read more »

Loss-of-Function Splice Variant in MTHFR

         November 26, 2020

In this blog post, I will be analyzing a loss-of-function splice variant in MTHFR using VarSeq. In the search for clinically relevant variants contributing to rare disorders, efficient filtering strategies are an important step in eliminating disinteresting variants. However, any applied filters must also ensure no interesting variants inadvertently get filtered out. Golden Helix provides the tools to complete this… Read more »

Webcast Recap: Evaluation of CNVs with VSClinical’s New ACMG Guideline Workflow

         November 10, 2020

In the webcast, Evaluation of Copy Number Variants with VSClinical’s New ACMG Guideline Workflow, we discussed how VSClinical implements Section 4 of the ACMG guidelines. Specifically, we focused on integrating literature and publications to assess the pathogenicity of a CNV event when there was a lack of dosage sensitivity information. One of the primary pieces of evidence for evaluating genes… Read more »

VarSeq’s NGS Panel Workflow: COL4A2 Variant from an Intellectual Disability Panel

         October 1, 2020

A common discussion with our customers includes the challenges with the tertiary stage of analyzing next-gen sequencing data. This is the stage where all data from gene panels, exome, or whole genome scale pass through filters to quickly isolate the clinically relevant variant contributing to a patient disorder. Golden Helix has recognized these challenges in the scale of data and… Read more »

Controlling Your Preferred Transcripts for Clinical Interpretation

         September 24, 2020
VSClinical algorithm

Did you know you can control your preferred transcript settings for clinical interpretation in VSClinical? Your lab is analyzing the DNA of a tissue sample from a patient with small cell lung cancer. The lab technician has imported the patient data into VSClinical to detect clinically relevant variants and evaluate and score these according to the AMP Guidelines, as well… Read more »

Advanced Plotting Capabilities with GenomeBrowse

         September 22, 2020

In this blog update, I’ll be walking you through some of the advanced plotting capabilities with GenomeBrowse. The strategy with any next-gen sequencing analysis is to filter down to interesting variants for either research or clinical conclusion. Golden Helix produces powerful software specifically tailored for this efficient and comprehensive search for interesting and clinically relevant variants. One additional advantage of… Read more »

Golden Helix’s NGS-Solutions for Clinical Variant Analysis: VarSeq’s CNV Frequency Assessment Catalogs

         August 20, 2020

Our software solutions and partners have brought dramatic improvements to the secondary and tertiary analysis stages of variant evaluation. Regarding secondary analysis, we’ve discussed increased efficiencies in speed and overall accuracy in the variant calling process with Sentieon. On the tertiary side, we have explored numerous workflows in VarSeq highlighting filtration to clinically relevant variants, as well as the automated… Read more »

Exporting Genes as Exon Regions in VS-CNV

         June 16, 2020
CNV Het Deletion

We have had many customers come to us over the years with a simple problem: they have BAM files for whole exome or gene panel data and would like to call CNVs using VarSeq’s powerful CNV calling capabilities, but they don’t have a bed file defining the target regions for their samples. To address this problem, we have developed a… Read more »

Auto-Updating Template Sources

         May 21, 2020
ClinVar

In VarSeq 2.2.1, you can set template annotation sources to automatically update to the latest version. Previously, VarSeq templates were frozen in time. Now, each new project created from a template would use the same source that was used when the template was created. When you save a template, you can have the sources automatically update to the latest version…. Read more »

The New ACMG-Based Trio Tutorial

         April 3, 2020

Our Support Team curates a variety of tutorials to help orient new users to the capabilities of VarSeq. We are happy to announce the team’s new release of the trio tutorial that places emphasis on using the ACMG guidelines. This tutorial gives insight into the proper setup of pedigree structure as well as detailed descriptions of the filter containers and… Read more »

Updated VSReports Project Templates

         March 10, 2020

Generating a clinical report is the final step of most NGS pipelines and is important as it relays results and information to legacy systems, physicians and ultimately the patient. As reporting is a valuable process, Golden Helix offers reporting capabilities according to the ACMG and AMP guidelines but also as a standalone feature in VSReports. VSReports is a platform that… Read more »

VarSeq Cancer Gene Panel Tutorial

         March 3, 2020
annotate

At Golden Helix, we want our new users to hit the ground running with VarSeq and not spend oodles of time getting started building and automating their workflows. To achieve this goal, our team has generated blogs, webcasts, and tutorials that explain and demonstrate workflows that are possible with VarSeq. Each VarSeq tutorial offers step by step instruction in which… Read more »

VarSeq Copy Number Variant Caller Tutorial

         February 20, 2020

Since the initial release of the copy number variant algorithms in VarSeq, our team has created a variety of content to help users get started with building their copy number variant projects. In our webcast library, you can find a few of our recent webcasts in 2019 covering CNV workflows and validation: Clinical Validation of Copy Number Variants Using the… Read more »

Updated GRCh38 VarSeq Project Templates

         February 4, 2020

As many of our users know, VarSeq comes shipped with various project templates that are designed to give users a baseline workflow to get started with their projects. These templates are tailored for various applications including tumor-normal, trios, cancer and hereditary gene panels, and ACMG Guidelines workflows. The templates contain application-specific annotation sources and algorithms that will automatically load into… Read more »

The New VSClinical ACMG Guidelines Tutorial

         November 21, 2019

Our tutorials are a popular resource for prospective users. We have added a tutorial to help introduce customers to the ease and utility of the ACMG Guidelines incorporated in VSClinical. The ACMG Guidelines are a collection of 33 criteria that are used to determine a variant’s level of pathogenicity. VSClinical and VarSeq make it easy for users to sort and… Read more »