Our FAS team would like to thank everyone who attended our December 2022 webcast, A User’s Perspective: Somatic Variant Analysis in VarSeq 2.3.0. This webcast allowed three members of our FAS team to give their unique insights concerning the improvements to our new VarSeq 2.3.0 release, which will be recapped here. Starting with template creation, our Technical Field Application Scientist,… Read more »
Variant normalization is essentially reducing the representation of a variant to its canonical representation. Variant normalization ensures that the way a variant is represented is parsimonious and left-aligned and can also refer to splitting variants into their allelic primitives. VarSeq normalizes variants by default, but we offer users the option to forego one or more aspects of variant normalization. This… Read more »
This November’s published articles citing Golden Helix software serve as a testament to our broad application and utility in NGS data analysis. We are always proud of our customers and the contributions they make to scientific discovery. Their continued work and research are motivators for us to continue delivering the best products we can. This month we are featuring two… Read more »
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our webcast on the upcoming VarSeq features supporting the full spectrum of genomic variation! Traditionally, NGS cancer testing started with small gene panels that looked at a small set of the most common genes to identify small mutations, such as BRAF V600E. However, there are many classes of mutation that cannot be… Read more »
The ACMG classification guidelines for variant pathogenicity are as ubiquitous as they are complicated to implement. They play a consistent and evolving role in the standard workflows of many experts in the next-generation sequencing field, both in the clinical and research space. Furthermore, they can be effectively applied in both somatic and germline workflows. Hence, consistent and auditable methods for… Read more »
The month of VarSeq must be October. This month we saw incredible research and clinical application being utilized with the VarSeq suite. Whole exome sequencing and variant filtering and annotation, CNV calling for oncology research, and pathogenicity classification using the ACMG guidelines. VarSeq was able to be a front-runner this month, showing the full range of capabilities. Germline RB1 Mutation… Read more »
Every month we compile customer publications that reference us, and every time I am excited to see the amazing work being done around the world. From pediatric heart conditions to rare diseases, or a Thai clinical study on dilated cardiomyopathy, it is always a pleasure to see the Golden Helix Software suite helping research and clinical genetics. Below are a… Read more »
Large genetic cohorts require substantial effort to analyze. Genetic researchers are increasingly turning to whole exome and whole genome sequencing analyses for their clinical diagnostics and research. However, with that approach comes the challenge of making sense of these massive datasets. This is especially challenging when looking for tools that can streamline variant analysis for large genetic cohorts and include… Read more »
The ability to analyze copy number variants (CNVs) is an important aspect of any clinical or research workflow. While calling CNVs can be a challenging engineering problem, we are thrilled by our capacity to detect, analyze, and catalog CNVs all in the same place with VarSeq-CNV. In this blog, we will dive into the particulars of detecting CNVs with gene… Read more »
This past month has produced some very interesting and diverse publications, all of which are using the VarSeq suite of products for whole exome & whole genome sequencing strategies. This month had it all: investigations of an understudied population in pharmacogenomic testing, the first-ever find with implications for Maine coon cats, and a puzzling case with a unique family displaying… Read more »
Thank you to those who attended our webcast on the user perspective of our automated AMP guidelines! Furthermore, let me express our appreciation for those particularly engaged users who posed some very thoughtful questions. While we weren’t able to answer all of them live, I hope to shed some light on some pertinent details of somatic analysis here. Let’s start… Read more »
July brought about several customers having success with utilizing our VarSeq software. We saw publicized research regarding Axenfield-Reiger syndrome, Septo-Optic Dysplasia, and association of TGFBI variants. This range of customer usage displays the vast capabilities of VarSeq and the applications it can work with. Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome: more than meets the eye Background: Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS) is characterised by typical anterior segment… Read more »
First, thank you to everyone who joined us for our recent webcast, Handling a Variety of CNV Caller Inputs with VarSeq. Also, we would like to thank those that Tweeted #CNVsupport @GoldenHelix or emailed us (mmarks@goldenhelix.com) to throw in their questions. This was a successful trial run, and we would like to continue engaging with our users through these outlets…. Read more »
Below is a list of highlighted peer-reviewed publications from this month. The Golden Helix team consistently enjoys seeing our software applications hard at work in the field, whether it is clinical whole-exome sequencing, targeted CNV identification, or genotype-phenotype correlations. Enjoy reading below how our suite of VarSeq, VSClinical, and VS-CNV continues to contribute to the progression of genetics research. Looking… Read more »
Our team is excited to be in Vienna, Austria for the European Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting (ESHG) 2022. We are looking forward to spending the week discussing genetics with new and familiar faces! If you are planning on attending, please stop by our booth and say hello! You will find the Golden Helix team in booth X5-476. Our… Read more »
As we look back on May, I wanted to highlight a range of applications that our VarSeq suite is capable of and show the success of our partners. In these publications, our VarSeq suite is utilized for the analysis of whole-exome, clinical variant classification and association, and assisting in an NGS panel for clinical oncology use. VarSeq’s range and capability… Read more »
In the era where cloud-based solutions are the default for the modern office, it may not be obvious why many laboratories and testing centers choose to host their data and analysis pipelines on-premises or on self-managed cloud services. In the recent webcast Evaluating Cloud vs On-Premises for NGS Clinical Workflows, I explored the topic of how to make infrastructure decisions… Read more »
Here at Golden Helix, we’ve sought to develop top-quality bioinformatic software to handle not only high-throughput clinical next-gen sequencing pipelines but also cater to research groups exploring their cohorts. Our tools fit in this NGS pipeline by importing the VCF and BAM files for downstream filtration, annotation, and classification/interpretation as well as clinical reporting. It was obvious early on and… Read more »
Curated databases are a real time saver when compiling published evidence to support your variant evaluations and classifications. Leveraging the curated databases at your fingertips in our VSClinical variant interpretation hub is even more efficient. Not only does VSClinical provides users with automated variant classification for germline variants according to the ACMG guidelines and somatic variants according to the AMP… Read more »
For this month’s Customer Success blog, I decided to revisit some of my favorite studies that had previously been featured in years past. At the time we first highlighted the below publications, some of them were in pre-print and have since been accepted and published. What they all have in common is the implementation of our VSClinical software, which saved… Read more »
