Reliable and accurate diagnostics from highly multiplexed sequencing assays

Abstract Scalable, inexpensive, and secure testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial for control of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Recently developed highly multiplexed sequencing assays (HMSAs) that rely on high-throughput sequencing can, in principle, meet these demands, and present promising a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Sina Booeshaghi, Nathan B. Lubock, Aaron R. Cooper, Scott W. Simpkins, Joshua S. Bloom, Jase Gehring, Laura Luebbert, Sri Kosuri, Lior Pachter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2020-12-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78942-7
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Summary:Abstract Scalable, inexpensive, and secure testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial for control of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Recently developed highly multiplexed sequencing assays (HMSAs) that rely on high-throughput sequencing can, in principle, meet these demands, and present promising alternatives to currently used RT-qPCR-based tests. However, reliable analysis, interpretation, and clinical use of HMSAs requires overcoming several computational, statistical and engineering challenges. Using recently acquired experimental data, we present and validate a computational workflow based on kallisto and bustools, that utilizes robust statistical methods and fast, memory efficient algorithms, to quickly, accurately and reliably process high-throughput sequencing data. We show that our workflow is effective at processing data from all recently proposed SARS-CoV-2 sequencing based diagnostic tests, and is generally applicable to any diagnostic HMSA.
ISSN:2045-2322