BOL: Related items

Breaking chromosomes to study cancer !!!

Jit — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:42:09 -0500

Chromosomes are present in every cell of our body and they contain the information the body needs to develop and function properly. This information is carried in genes that are arranged along the chromosomes. There are usually 46 chromosomes in every cell. These chromosomes come in pairs, one from our mother and one from our father. The chromosomes can be sorted into 23 pairs by looking at them down a microscope.

Most people who have a balanced translocation have the right amount of chromosome material but it has been rearranged in some way. This may happen if two chromosomes swap pieces (a reciprocal translocation). In other cases two whole chromosomes may become stuck together (a Robertsonian translocation). This page describes what happens when someone has a reciprocal translocation.

Reciprocal chromosomal translocations occur following double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA when a section of one chromosome is exchanged with that of another, non-homologous chromosome. These exchanges may produce a dysfunctional fusion gene that disrupts cell growth and survival pathways, such as the translocations seen in leukemia and childhood sarcomas.

Chromosomal translocations have been well studied in cancer cell lines which are associated with two types of cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and Ewing's sarcoma, but determining how they contribute to cancer development is complicated by additional mutations and altered gene expression profiles in these cultured cells. Now, Juan Carlos Ramirez, head of the Viral Vector Facility at the Fundacion Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) and his colleagues Raul Torres at CNIC and Sandra Rodriguez-Peralez at the Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain have used a new genome editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, to induce chromosomal translocations for the first time in a human cell line and in primary cells. The study's authors conclude by stating that the use of this technology will allow for the clarification of how and why chromosomal translocation occurs, which without doubt will allow new anti-cancer therapeutic strategies to be tackled.

Using RNA-Guided Endonuclease (RGEN) technology or CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering technology, CNIO and CNIC researchers have shown that it is possible to obtain such chromosomal translocations. The CRISPR-Cas9 system is extremely simple to introduce a cut at the desired locus, easier to design, and cheaper than many other systems. Using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, Ramirez and his colleagues reproduced the translocations observed in Ewing’s Sarcoma (ES) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patient cell lines in HEK293 cells and also generated the ES translocation in human mesenchymal stem cells and the AML translocation in umbilical cord blood cells.

By focusing on chromosomal translocation without the confounding characteristics of established cell lines, these new cells lines should help answer the fundamental question of what causes a cell to become cancerous. Ramirez and his team now look forward to modeling other chromosome translocations in a variety of cell types.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosomal_translocation

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140603/ncomms4964/abs/ncomms4964.html

AMStat: display statistics of large sequence files from next generation sequencing projects

Neel — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 13:34:56 -0600

SAMStat is an efficient C program to quickly display statistics of large sequence files from next generation sequencing projects. When applied to SAM/BAM files all statistics are reported for unmapped, poorly and accurately mapped reads separately. This allows for identification of a variety of problems, such as remaining linker and adaptor sequences, causing poor mapping. Apart from this SAMStat can be used to verify individual processing steps in large analysis pipelines.

Address of the bookmark: http://samstat.sourceforge.net/

nQuire: A statistical framework for ploidy estimation using NGS short-read data

Jit — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 05:12:19 -0600

nQuire implements a set of commands to estimate ploidy level of individuals from species, where recent polyploidization occurred and intraspecific ploidy variation is observed. Specifically, nQuire uses next-generation sequencing data to distinguish between diploids, triploids and tetraploids, on the basis of frequency distributions at variant sites where only two bases are segregating.

For more background see also the publication at BMC Bioinformatics.

https://github.com/clwgg/nQuire

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/clwgg/nQuire

Scientist-B (Bioinformatics) at AIIMS, Delhi

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 04:34:55 -0600

Name of the Project: “Artificial intelligence in Oncology, Harnessing big data and advanced computing to provide personalized diagnosis and treatment for Cancer patients”

Age Limit: 35

How to Apply for the AIIMS Life Science Job:

Interested applicants are asked to send out a detailed CV to Dr Ashok Sharma (aioncoaiims@gmail.com). Laboratory of Chromatin and also Cancer Epigenetics, Department of Biochemistry with the subject line “Application for Scientist-B position for MeitY project” latest by January 01st, 2021.
Complete Information of the year of passing, experience, marks, etc. ought to be mentioned in the CV Incomplete. applications will certainly be rejected Just shortlisted applicants will be called for interview. Chosen candidates will certainly be intimated by email/phone.
No TA/DA will certainly be paid for appearing in the interview.
Note, The institute reserved the right to fill up or not to fill up the post advertised.

Emoluments: Rs. 56,000/- plus 24 percent HRA

Eligibility:
2nd class Master’s Degree with a PhD in a pertinent subject (Bioinformatics) from.a recognized University
1st class Master’s degree in Life Sciences (Bioinformatics) from a recognized university OR.
Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or-Technology with minimal 60% marks from a recognized University or equivalent.

Desirable Qualifications:
Experience in Bioinformatics/NGS data. Analysis/System Biology/Computer Science/ statistics with experience in Machine learning/Al project.
Experience of Deep learning applications in biological data ( image/text).
Proficient in Rf Python machine learning libraries.
Prior experience in the cancer-related project (ML-based) will be advantageous.
Experience with PyTorch/TensorFlow will certainly be very desirable.
Applicant should have strong scientific writing as well as. verbal abilities.
Papers in sci-indexed journals demonstrating ML skill sets.
Database handling will certainly be plus yet not required.

More detail at https://www.aiims.edu/images/pdf/recruitment/advertisement/biochem-16-12-20.pdf

Choosing the Right NGS Sequencing Instrument for Your Study

Neel — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:37:29 -0500

The right sequencing instrument for your study depends on your project goal. Setting aside turnaround time and price, it essentially comes down to the numbers of reads and read length you need for your experiment. Below, we've described and compared metrics for each of the instruments available. If you’re new to high-throughput sequencing and have questions about how you should design your sequencing run, fill out our free consultation form and we'll get in touch with you to help.

More at https://genohub.com/ngs-instrument-guide/

Address of the bookmark: https://genohub.com/ngs-instrument-guide/

Common steps for reads mapping !

BioStar — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 02:48:02 -0600

Mapping reads to a reference genome is an essential step in many types of genomic analysis, such as variant calling and gene expression analysis. Here are some general steps to follow for mapping reads to a genome:

Choose a read mapper: There are many read mappers available, such as BWA, Bowtie, and HISAT2. Choose a mapper that is appropriate for your type of data and research question.
Index the reference genome: Before mapping reads, the reference genome needs to be indexed. This involves creating an index of the genome sequence that allows the mapper to quickly find matches to the reads. Most mappers have their own indexing tools.
Prepare the read data: The reads should be in a format that is compatible with the mapper. Most mappers accept FASTQ or BAM files. Depending on the quality of the data, it may need to be filtered or trimmed before mapping.
Run the mapper: The mapper is run with the command-line interface or using a graphical user interface. The specific command depends on the mapper being used, but typically involves specifying the input data, reference genome, and output file format.
Evaluate the mapping results: After the mapping is complete, the results should be evaluated. This includes assessing the quality of the mapping, such as the mapping rate, the number of mapped reads, and the mapping quality score.
Post-processing: Depending on the analysis being performed, post-processing of the mapped reads may be necessary. This can include filtering reads based on quality, removing duplicate reads, and calling variants.

Overall, mapping reads to a reference genome is a complex process that requires careful consideration of the type of data, the research question, and the specific mapper being used.

1mb long DNA with Nanopore technology

Jit — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 18:49:28 -0600

The first continuous DNA read of more than a million bases (>1Mb) has been achieved, using Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology. Congratulations to Martin Smith and collaborators! Read more: http://bit.ly/2j5TNCO

VariantBam: Filtering and profiling of next-generational sequencing data using region-specific rules

Rahul Nayak — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 16:30:44 -0500

VariantBam is a tool to extract/count specific sets of sequencing reads from next-generational sequencing files. To save money, disk space and I/O, one may not want to store an entire BAM on disk. In many cases, it would be more efficient to store only those read-pairs or reads who intersect some region around the variant locations. Alternatively, if your scientific question is focused on only one aspect of the data (e.g. breakpoints), many reads can be removed without losing the information relevant to the problem.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/broadinstitute/VariantBam

NanoPack: visualizing and processing long-read sequencing data

Jit — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 21:20:50 -0600

The NanoPack tools are written in Python3 and released under the GNU GPL3.0 License. The source code can be found at https://github.com/wdecoster/nanopack, together with links to separate scripts and their documentation. The scripts are compatible with Linux, Mac OS and the MS Windows 10 subsystem for Linux and are available as a graphical user interface, a web service at http://nanoplot.bioinf.be and command line tools.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/wdecoster/nanopack

ngs-bits - Short-read sequencing tools

Neel — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 23:14:00 -0600

Binaries of ngs-bits are available via Bioconda. Alternatively, ngs-bits can be built from sources:

Binaries for Linux/macOS
From sources for Linux/macOS
From sources for Windows

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/imgag/ngs-bits