Recent advances in genomic technologies have led to the identification of many novel disease-gene associations, enabling more precise diagnoses. Along with the technologies enabling rapid DNA sequencing, multiple computational approaches have been developed to identify structural variants (i.e. relatively large deletions and duplications of genomic sequences). These workflows can lead to the identification of different structural variants, raising the risk of missing disease-causing variants when using only one of those methods. Unfortunately, many of the variants identified by those workflows are artifacts (i.e. absent in the biological sample), raising concerns that time and effort will be wasted on those artifacts instead of analyzing the causative genetic variant. The goal of this project is to develop best practices to increase the chance to identify causative structural variants, while reducing the number of artifacts. We will use the raw data from whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing of patients with renal diseases. The students will be expected to (1) Compare the output of 4 different tools for identifying structural variants and visualize the differences (using R or Python) and (2) Identify the tool specific parameters that increases the specificity and sensitivity of each tool in differentiating true variants and artifacts.

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It has long been recognized that there could be a tradeoff between optimizing the accuracy of machine learning predictions and satisfying definitions of fairness for protected or vulnerable groups. This tradeoff has led to an increased interest in finding models that both perform well while also exhibiting fairness properties.

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The IGM has performed diagnostic whole exome or whole genome sequencing on more than 5000 CUIMC patients with presentations including undiagnosed diseases of childhood, chronic kidney disease, fetal anomalies and neurological diseases (with a focus on epilepsy) among many others. These patients have been analyzed with a standardized diagnostic pipeline to identify single genotypes that are responsible for disease. Diagnostic genotypes are those that are considered to be likely contributing to the patient’s presentation through study team consensus (a multidisciplinary team that includes population geneticists, molecular geneticists, clinicians, genetic counselors, bioinformaticians and analysts). The student will be expected to 1) build an easy-to-use interface and secure database for variant records and phenotype information, and 2) implement a web interface to facilitate variant submission to ClinVar which is a freely accessible, public archive of reports of the relationships among human variations and phenotypes, with supporting evidence.

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One of the methods to identify novel gene-disease associations is called “trio analysis”, when an affected child (proband) and both his/her parents DNA are sequenced. The genetic information from the child and his/her parents allows for the rapid identification of compound heterozygous variants (i.e. 2 variants in the same gene, one inherited from the mother and the other one from the father).

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This project aims to create/develop a smartphone application for use with our pediatric cardiology patients. The application would be a “patient passport,” which essentially would be a snapshot of their most critical medical information. It will not be linked to the clinical health records; rather, it needs to be a template with various questions that we would create (name, diagnosis, surgeries, current medications, etc). The doctor would fill out the information with the patient, and it would then be saved on the patient’s phone for them to show other healthcare professionals. We are looking for a student who can help us design this app (from a technological perspective) and get it up and running. It would need to be encrypted and password protected.

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5G-and-beyond networks will utilize data transmissions at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies to improve data throughput and wireless spectrum utilization. Recently, there is interest in utilizing mmWave frequencies for fixed wireless access (FWA), which can provide Internet connectivity to buildings which do not currently have good service. FWA requires a much lower infrastructure investment than running fiber optic or copper cables into a premise, which remains by far the predominant method of providing Internet access to a building today.

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