Research Article
DNAseq Workflow in a Diagnostic Context and
an Example of a User Friendly Implementation
Beat Wolf,
1,2
Pierre Kuonen,
1
Thomas Dandekar,
2
and David Atlan
3
1
University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, Perolles 80, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
2
University of W¨ urzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 W¨ urzburg, Germany
3
Phenosystems SA, 137 Rue de Tubize, 1440 Braine le Chateau, Belgium
Correspondence should be addressed to Beat Wolf; beat.wolf@hefr.ch
Received 13 March 2015; Revised 10 May 2015; Accepted 18 May 2015
Academic Editor: Hong Lu
Copyright © 2015 Beat Wolf et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Over recent years next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies evolved from costly tools used by very few, to a much more
accessible and economically viable technology. Trough this recently gained popularity, its use-cases expanded from research
environments into clinical settings. But the technical know-how and infrastructure required to analyze the data remain an obstacle
for a wider adoption of this technology, especially in smaller laboratories. We present GensearchNGS, a commercial DNAseq
sofware suite distributed by Phenosystems SA. Te focus of GensearchNGS is the optimal usage of already existing infrastructure,
while keeping its use simple. Tis is achieved through the integration of existing tools in a comprehensive sofware environment, as
well as custom algorithms developed with the restrictions of limited infrastructures in mind. Tis includes the possibility to connect
multiple computers to speed up computing intensive parts of the analysis such as sequence alignments. We present a typical DNAseq
workfow for NGS data analysis and the approach GensearchNGS takes to implement it. Te presented workfow goes from raw
data quality control to the fnal variant report. Tis includes features such as gene panels and the integration of online databases,
like Ensembl for annotations or Cafe Variome for variant sharing.
1. Introduction
Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies saw a rapid
progression over recent years and improved in many aspects
since their introduction. Te data quality, the length of the
sequences, and the speed at which the data is generated
improved massively all while decreasing the costs associ-
ated with the technology [1]. Cost reductions and quality
improvements now allow the technology to be used in
a diagnostic setting, replacing older technologies such as
Sanger sequencing [2]. An increasing number of laboratories
are either considering or already implementing NGS for
routine diagnostics procedures. Next generation sequencing
has many use-cases in diagnostics and, depending on the
analysis, diferent types of information are searched for in
the sequencing data. A very common type of analysis is
the search for SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) and
small indels (insertions and deletions) in patient DNA. With
the increasing number of documented variations in well-
known disease related genes, this type of analysis became
very common. Increasingly, other types of analyses are also
used in diagnostics, such as the detection of structural
variations, which became possible with the increased quality
of sequencing data. Te sequencing data, which can come
from various sequencing technologies, can be either tar-
geted, such as targeted gene panel sequencing and whole
exome sequencing (WES), or nontargeted like whole genome
sequencing (WGS). Tose diferent approaches to sequence
the patient’s genome produce a varying amount of data [3]
and are suited for diferent types of analyses. Te complexity
of the analysis increases with the amount of data to process,
both from a computational point of view and from a human
resources point of view. Te general tendency today is to
move away from targeted sequencing towards WGS, as this
removes the need for targeted amplicon libraries, as well as
making it easier to reanalyse a sample at a later date without
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
BioMed Research International
Volume 2015, Article ID 403497, 11 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/403497