有勁的基因資訊

作者：黃啓銘/有勁基因

新型冠狀病毒肺炎(Covid-19)疫情自2020年至今肆虐全球，由於有效的治療藥物及療法未問世，注重個人衛生與疫苗注射仍是目前防範新冠肺炎的黃金標準；然而狡猾的新冠病毒(SARS-CoV-2)仍不斷突變，以致疫苗保護力不如預期。世界衛生組織迄今已經追蹤研究的變異病毒株就有9種¹，新冠疫情預期還會持續並演變成人類與病毒的長期攻防戰；該如何有效分配醫療資源使之不致耗竭已然成為新冠疫情防疫的重要課題之一。

作者：張家豪／有勁基因

有勁部落格文章《Patterned Flowcell平台的重複讀取問題》中曾提到：HiSeq 4000平台需要尋找文庫(library)的最佳上機濃度進行定序，不然會容易出現資料「重複讀取(duplicate reads)」的情況。那麼有沒有工具可以計算出定序資料中duplicate reads的實際比例並且將之移除呢？答案是：有的。本文會使用表一中的定序資料來為大家介紹兩種可供利用的軟體工具⼀FastQC以及fastp。

Written by Tiffany Chen

In this day and age, the advances in genetic technologies have allowed us to learn more about our genetic history. Companies such as 23andme and Ancestry claim that they have genetic testing services provided to help people to explore their ancestry and the origins of their traits with a simple way for instance taking a saliva sample. Saliva sampling is the most common method to collect DNA samples, as it provides a significantly higher DNA yield than other sample collecting methods (e.g. buccal swabbing). Once the DNA samples are collected, service providers can proceed genetic testing, and provide customers clues to trace the origins of their facial features and ancestry. Nevertheless, review feedbacks always cite both positively and negatively.