FASTA, FASTQ, SAM, BAM, BWA, GC, GATK, IGV. Phew. Day 2 at the EuroEPINOMICS bioinformatics workshop in Leuven. Usually my work starts after the initial NGS raw data quality control and mapping procedures. Today’s topics are supposed to improve my understanding of sequencing analysis and NGS data interpretation. While we are still struggling, other scientists have done their home work already. Here are some of the remarkable publications from this week.
Author Archives: dennislal
Papers of the week – DEPDC5, a “female protective model” and rescued KCNT1 mutations
In final week before our EuroEPINOMICS bioinformatics workshop in Leuven people get a little busy and start reading up on all sorts of things. Accordingly, this week’s papers come from all areas of genetics and life science, including three studies in Annals of Neurology on epilepsy genetics.
GPHN deletions in IGE and mutation-dependent recessive inheritance
Living in Cologne is a little tough at the moment. Currently, we are in the middle of the Cologne Carnival, the world’s oldest carnival, which started in 1829. Until the upcoming Wednesday the entire city is one big festival. In addition to the 1 million Cologne citizens probably another million tourists will join. Due to this (positive) distraction I will write less than usual. However, I still consider this week’s publications noteworthy. Continue reading
Papers of the week – 15q11 duplications, Olig1 & Automated decision-making
A productive week in epilepsy genetics. Scientists and editors were certainly busy this week reporting novel variants and deletions as well the experimental and statistical advances for their interpretation.
A de novo GRIN2A missense mutation in early-onset epileptic encephalopathy. We and others have associated variants affecting the GRIN2A gene with a range of childhood focal epilepsy syndromes. Continue reading
Papers of the week – next-level mutation classifiers and 3’UTR variants in Dravet Syndrome
The future is now. This week’s publications of the week are about the next generation of in silico mutation interpretation, the power of a full genetic screen in neurodegenerative motor neuron diseases and a possible 3’UTR mutation in Dravet Syndrome. Continue reading
Papers of the week – Encephalitis-antibodies, FAN1, Art and Parent-of-Origin Effects
Biggest surprise this week: Imprinted genes interact with non-imprinted genes frequently. But first sequencing reports, statistical frameworks for rare variants analyzes and an impressive translational result.
A novel encephalitis with seizures and the analysis of the effects of antibodies. In their study published in LANCET NEUROLOGY Petit-Pedrol and coworkers characterized serum and CSF samples for antigens in 140 patients with encephalitis, seizures or status epilepticus as well as antibodies to unknown neurophil antigens. High titres of serum and CSF GABAA receptor antibodies are reported to be associated with a severe form of encephalitis with seizures, refractory status epilepticus, or both, which could be exploited for immunotherapy with 15 patients.
Papers of the week – WES Meta analysis, Dravet mice & large sequencing studies
Time flies – already thursday night again. Here are updates on study designs to identify rare pathogenic mutations in neurodevelopment diseases, an epilepsy animal model study as well as novel statistical frameworks for large genetic screens.
The placebo effect. In a recent paper in Science Translational Medicine the group of Kam-Hansen investigated the effect of altered placebo and drug labeling changes and its outcome in patients with episodic migraine. Their results suggest that the placebo accounted for more than 50% of the drug effect.
A PhD in genomics – lessons learned
This is it! With finishing my PhD I have become an “adult” member of the scientific community. I grew out of a bachelor in biochemistry on transfection methods in neuronal cell lines, a research semester in Canberra with focus on B-cell immunology and master into a PhD in epilepsy genomics. I was involved in the EPICURE IGE copy number projects and recently my work changed to the analysis of rare variants in RE and IGE in the EUROepinomics framework. During this time I was involved in the identification of variants in RBFOX genes and GRIN2A as well as other risk factors which are currently in review. I share my experience and thoughts and hope they help others who are about to or have just started their thesis. The aspects reflect my personal view and some are specific for graduation in disease genomics. Continue reading
Papers of the week – Comorbidity clusters, Epigenomic annotation & exome-based TDT
Finally, I have finished my PhD. After focussing on writing and defending my thesis for the last few months, I am now ready to focus on research again. Because I am understandably in a very happy mood, this week’s selection of papers also reflects the fun aspects of science beside neurogenetics and genomics. Continue reading
Papers of the week – Ohnologs, Microbiota in ASD & Personal Stories
New Year – new papers. The United Nations has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming and Crystallography.
But for epilepsy genetics it will be the year of genotyping and sequencing. Hopefully, these studies will translate into with major insights in epilepsy genetics.