Abstract: Method and apparatus for detecting insufficient homology regions of a reference sequence are described herein. The method can identify an insufficient homology region within a reference sequence with respect to a genomic sample of a subject by determining the extent of abnormality of a particular combination of features exhibited by an aligned sequence read. The method can include obtaining an initial alignment based on a reference sequence and sequence reads derived from a genomic sample of a subject, determining an expected background level of alignment abnormalities in the initial alignment, determining an unexpectedness of observed alignment abnormalities for each sequence read, identifying insufficient homology regions within the reference sequence, and tagging the identified insufficient homology region for a remedial action.

Abstract: The invention provides methods for identifying rare variants near a structural variation in a genetic sequence, for example, in a nucleic acid sample taken from a subject. The invention additionally includes methods for aligning reads (e.g., nucleic acid reads) to a reference sequence construct accounting for the structural variation, methods for building a reference sequence construct accounting for the structural variation or the structural variation and the rare variant, and systems that use the alignment methods to identify rare variants. The method is scalable, and can be used to align millions of reads to a construct thousands of bases long, or longer.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the disclosure relate to systems and methods for aligning a sequence read to a graph reference. In one embodiment, the method comprises selecting a first node from a graph reference, the graph reference comprising a plurality of nodes connected by a plurality of directed edges, at least one node of the plurality of nodes having a nucleotide sequence. The method further comprises traversing the graph reference according to a depth-first search, and comparing a sequence read to nucleotide sequences generated from the traversal of the graph reference. The traversal of the graph is then modified in response to a determination that each and every node associated with a given nucleotide sequence was previously evaluated.

Abstract: A method and corresponding apparatus for identifying tandem repeats in a nucleotide sequence is described. Tandem repeats can be identified by identifying one or more lines present in a self-alignment plot of the nucleotide sequence. The disclosed method includes identifying one or more square-shaped subregions (SSS) representing a tandem repeat and each associated with a plurality of identified candidate alignments by: i) estimating a defining point of an individual square for each of the candidate alignments, each candidate alignment having a start point and an end point, the start point and the end point positioned along adjacent sides of the individual square; ii) selecting one or more seed alignments from the one or more candidate alignments; and iii) associating the one or more candidate alignments with the one or more seed alignments. Based on the associating, a final SSS representing a tandem repeat is determined and its presence is reported.

Abstract: The invention includes methods and systems for identifying diseased-induced mutations by producing multi-dimensional reference sequence constructs that account for variations between individuals, different diseases, and different stages of those diseases. Once constructed, these reference sequence constructs can be used to align sequence reads corresponding to genetic samples from patients suspected of having a disease, or who have had the disease and are in suspected remission. The reference sequence constructs also provide insight to the genetic progression of the disease.

Abstract: Some embodiments relate to systems for processing one or more computational workflows. In one embodiment, a description of a computational comprises a plurality of applications, in which applications are represented as nodes and edges connect the nodes indicate the flow of data elements between applications. A task execution module is configured to create and execute tasks. An application programming interface (API) is in communication with the task execution module and comprises a plurality of function calls for controlling at least one function of the task execution module. An API script includes instructions to the API to create and execute a plurality of tasks corresponding to the execution of the computational workflow for a plurality of samples. A graphical user interface (GUI) is in communication with the task execution module and configured to receive input from an end user to initiate execution of the API script.

Abstract: The invention relates to methods for determining a haplotype for an organism by using a system for transforming SNP alleles found in sequence fragments into vertices in a graph with edges connecting vertices for alleles that appear together in a sequence fragment. A community detection operation can be used to infer the haplotype from the graph. The system may produce a report that includes the haplotype of the SNPs found in the genome of that organism.

Abstract: Genomic references are structured as a reference graph that represents diploid genotypes in organisms. A path through a series of connected nodes and edges represents a genetic sequence. Genetic variation within a diploid organism is represented by multiple paths through the reference graph. The graph may be transformed into a traversal graph in which a path represents a diploid genotype. Genetic analysis using the traversal graph allows an organism's diploid genotype to be elucidated, e.g., by mapping sequence reads to the reference graph and scoring paths in the traversal graph based on the mapping to determine the path through the traversal graph that best fits the sequence reads.

Abstract: The invention generally provides systems and methods for analysis of RNA-Seq reads in which an annotated reference is represented as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) or similar data structure. Features such as exons and introns from the reference provide nodes in the DAG and those features are linked as pairs in their canonical genomic order by edges. The DAG can scale to any size and can in fact be populated in the first instance by import from an extrinsic annotated reference.

Abstract: The invention provides methods for analyzing sequence data in which a large amount and variety of reference data are efficiently modeled as a reference graph, such as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The method includes determining positions of k-mers within a reference graph that represents a genomic sequence and known variation, storing the positions of each k-mer in a table entry indexed by a hash of that k-mer, and identifying a region within the reference graph that includes a threshold number of the k-mers by reading from the table entries indexed by hashes of substrings of a subject sequence. The subject sequence may subsequently be mapped to the candidate region.

Abstract: The invention provides systems and methods for encoding specific portions of a genomic graph in a way that is useful for copying or moving those portions from one location to another. The genomic graph can comprise nodes connected by edges, wherein the nodes and edges are stored as edge objects in non-transitory memory of a computer system and wherein an edge within the graph represents a genomic sequence. In on embodiment, the a method of encoding a genomic graph comprises selecting at least one edge from the genomic graph, the at least one edge representing a single genetic sequence and having a position on the genomic graph. The method can further comprise encoding the at least one edge as a string of bits, in which at least a first component of the string of bits stores at least a portion of the position of the edge on the genomic graph.

Abstract: The invention includes methods for aligning reads (e.g., nucleic acid reads, amino acid reads) to a reference sequence construct, methods for building the reference sequence construct, and systems that use the alignment methods and constructs to produce sequences. The method is scalable, and can be used to align millions of reads to a construct thousands of bases or amino acids long. The invention additionally includes methods for identifying a disease or a genotype based upon alignment of nucleic acid reads to a location in the construct.

Abstract: The invention provides methods for identifying rare variants near a structural variation in a genetic sequence, for example, in a nucleic acid sample taken from a subject. The invention additionally includes methods for aligning reads (e.g., nucleic acid reads) to a reference sequence construct accounting for the structural variation, methods for building a reference sequence construct accounting for the structural variation or the structural variation and the rare variant, and systems that use the alignment methods to identify rare variants. The method is scalable, and can be used to align millions of reads to a construct thousands of bases long, or longer.

Abstract: The invention relates to bioinformatics pipelines and wrapper scripts that call executables in those pipelines and that also identify beneficial changes to the pipelines. A tool in a pipeline has a smart wrapper that can cause the tool to analyze the sequence data it receives but that can also select a change to the pipeline when circumstances warrant. In certain aspects, the invention provides a system for genomic analysis. The system includes a processor coupled to a non-transitory memory. The system is operable to present to a user a plurality of genomic tools organized into a pipeline. At least a first one of the tools comprises an executable and a wrapper script. The system can receive instructions from the user and sequence data—instructions that call for the sequence data to be analyzed by the pipeline—and select, using the wrapper script, a change to the pipeline.

Abstract: The invention provides methods and system for making specific base calls at specific loci using a reference sequence construct, e.g., a directed acyclic graph (DAG) that represents known variants at each locus of the genome. Because the sequence reads are aligned to the DAG during alignment, the subsequent step of comparing a mutation, vis-à-vis the reference genome, to a table of known mutations can be eliminated. The disclosed methods and systems are notably efficient in dealing with structural variations within a genome or mutations that are within a structural variation.

Abstract: A method of aligning a data sequence to one or more reference sequences represented as a sequence variation graph (SVG) is disclosed. The method can comprise receiving one or more alignment candidate regions and corresponding ordered seeding information. For each of the received alignment candidate regions, a current seed is determined, the current seed being a next-in-order unprocessed seed based on the ordered seeding information. Data paths in the alignment candidate region are then traversed to identify potential next seeds relative to the current seed. If at least one potential next seed is found, a next seed is selected and alignment results are generated by applying a local alignment procedure to align query data in portions of the query data sequence between the current seed and the next seed with reference data in portions of the alignment candidate region located between the current seed and the next seed.

Abstract: The invention includes methods and systems for identifying diseased-induced mutations by producing multi-dimensional reference sequence constructs that account for variations between individuals, different diseases, and different stages of those diseases. Once constructed, these reference sequence constructs can be used to align sequence reads corresponding to genetic samples from patients suspected of having a disease, or who have had the disease and are in suspected remission. The reference sequence constructs also provide insight to the genetic progression of the disease.

Abstract: Methods of analyzing a transcriptome that involves obtaining at least one pair of paired-end reads from a transcriptome from an organism, finding an alignment with an optimal score between a first read of the pair and a node in a directed acyclic data structure (the data structure has nodes representing RNA sequences such as exons or transcripts and edges connecting pairs of nodes), identifying candidate paths that include the node connected to a downstream node by a path having a length substantially similar to an insert length of the pair of paired-end reads, and aligning the paired-end rends to the candidate paths to determine an optimal-scoring alignment.

Abstract: The invention provides methods for comparing one set of genetic sequences to another without discarding any information within either set. A set of genetic sequences is represented using a directed acyclic graph (DAG) avoiding any unwarranted reduction to a linear data structure. The invention provides a way to align one sequence DAG to another to produce an alignment that can itself be stored as a DAG. DAG-to-DAG alignment is a natural choice wherever a set of genomic information consisting of more than one string needs to be compared to any non-linear reference. For example, a subpopulation DAG could be compared to a population DAG in order to compare the genetic features of that subpopulation to those of the population.

Abstract: Techniques for generating a personalized reference sequence construct for an individual to align sequence reads obtained for the individual. The techniques include: obtaining a plurality of sequence reads for an individual; obtaining information identifying a plurality of locations; genotyping the plurality of sequence reads for the plurality of locations to obtain a first set of variants for the individual for at least some of the plurality of locations; identifying a second set of variants associated with the first set of variants; generating a personalized reference sequence construct using the second set of variants; and aligning the plurality of sequence reads to the personalized reference sequence construct.