Improving genome assemblies using multi-platform sequence data

Accurate de novo assembly using short reads generated by next generation sequencing technologies is still an open problem. Although there are several assembly algorithms developed for data generated with different sequencing technologies, and some that can make use of hybrid data, the assemblies are still far from being perfect. There is still a need for computational approaches to improve draft assemblies. Here we propose a new method to correct assembly mistakes when there are multiple types of data generated using different sequencing technologies that have different strengths and biases. We exploit the assembly of highly accurate short reads to correct the contigs obtained from less accurate long reads. We apply our method to Illumina, 454, and Ion Torrent data, and also compare our results with existing hybrid assemblers, Celera and Masurca. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Multimodal analysis of cell-free DNA whole-genome sequencing for pediatric cancers with low mutational burden

Sequencing of cell-free DNA in the blood of cancer patients (liquid biopsy) provides attractive opportunities for early diagnosis, assessment of treatment response, and minimally invasive disease monitoring. To unlock liquid biopsy analysis for pediatric tumors with few genetic aberrations, we introduce an integrated genetic/epigenetic analysis method and demonstrate its utility on 241 deep whole-genome sequencing profiles of 95 patients with Ewing sarcoma and 31 patients with other pediatric sarcomas. Our method achieves sensitive detection and classification of circulating tumor DNA in peripheral blood independent of any genetic alterations. Moreover, we benchmark different metrics for cell-free DNA fragmentation analysis, and we introduce the LIQUORICE algorithm for detecting circulating tumor DNA based on cancer-specific chromatin signatures. Finally, we combine several fragmentation-based metrics into an integrated machine learning classifier for liquid biopsy analysis that exploits widespread epigenetic deregulation and is tailored to cancers with low mutation rates. Clinical associations highlight the potential value of cfDNA fragmentation patterns as prognostic biomarkers in Ewing sarcoma. In summary, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of circulating tumor DNA beyond recurrent genetic aberrations, and it renders the benefits of liquid biopsy more readily accessible for childhood cancers

Identifying Disease-causing Mutations with Privacy Protection

Motivation: The use of genome data for diagnosis and treatment is becoming increasingly common. Researchers need access to as many genomes as possible to interpret the patient genome, to obtain some statistical patterns and to reveal disease-gene relationships. The sensitive information contained in the genome data and the high risk of re-identification increase the privacy and security concerns associated with sharing such data. In this article, we present an approach to identify disease-associated variants and genes while ensuring patient privacy. The proposed method uses secure multi-party computation to find disease-causing mutations under specific inheritance models without sacrificing the privacy of individuals. It discloses only variants or genes obtained as a result of the analysis. Thus, the vast majority of patient data can be kept private. Results: Our prototype implementation performs analyses on thousands of genomic data in milliseconds, and the runtime scales logarithmically with the number of patients. We present the first inheritance model (recessive, dominant and compound heterozygous) based privacy-preserving analyses of genomic data to find disease-causing mutations. Furthermore, we re-implement the privacy-preserving methods (MAX, SETDIFF and INTERSECTION) proposed in a previous study. Our MAX, SETDIFF and INTERSECTION implementations are 2.5, 1122 and 341 times faster than the corresponding operations of the state-of-the-art protocol, respectively

Religious hegemonism

Religion and spirituality can be central to a person’s identity and lived experiences (Savage & Armstrong, 2010), and yet the concepts themselves are complex and multifaceted. In Australia, three-fifths of the population (61%, or approximately 14 million people) are affiliated with some religion or spiritual belief (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2017a). Eighty-six per cent of this group (approximately 12 million) identify as Christians, comprising Catholic, Anglican and other Christian. The chapter starts with definitions and statistics to contextualise the concept of religious hegemonism within the contemporary Australian environment. The link between religion, spirituality and well-being will be explored, and personal stories of individuals from non-dominant faith backgrounds will describe their experiences. Experiential activities that encourage the reader to understand and challenge societal stereotypes, their own perceptions and gain a greater appreciation of spirituality, religion and religious hegemonism