An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge.

Brownstein CA, Beggs AH, Homer N, Merriman B, Yu TW, Flannery KC, Dechene ET, Towne MC, Savage SK, Price EN, Holm IA, Luquette LJ, Lyon E, Majzoub J, Neupert P, McCallie D Jr, Szolovits P, Willard HF, Mendelsohn NJ, Temme R, Finkel RS, Yum SW, Medne L, Sunyaev SR, Adzhubey I, Cassa CA, de Bakker PI, Duzkale H, Dworzy Ski P, Fairbrother W, Francioli L, Funke BH, Giovanni MA, Handsaker RE, Lage K, Lebo MS, Lek M, Leshchiner I, Macarthur DG,McLaughlin HM, Murray MF, Pers TH, Polak PP, Raychaudhuri S, Rehm HL, Soemedi R, Stitziel NO, Vestecka S, Supper J, Gugenmus C, Klocke B, Hahn A,Schubach M, Menzel M, Biskup S, Freisinger P, Deng M, Braun M, Perner S, Smith RJ, Andorf JL, Huang J, Ryckman K, Sheffield VC, Stone EM, Bair T, Black-Ziegelbein EA, Braun TA, Darbro B, Deluca AP, Kolbe DL, Scheetz TE, Shearer AE, Sompallae R, Wang K, Bassuk AG, Edens E, Mathews K, Moore SA,Shchelochkov OA, Trapane P, Bossler A, Campbell CA, Heusel JW, Kwitek A, Maga T, Panzer K, Wassink T, Van Daele D, Azaiez H, Booth K, Meyer N, Segal MM, Williams MS, Tromp G, White P, Corsmeier D, Fitzgerald-Butt S, Herman G, Lamb-Thrush D, McBride KL, Newsom D, Pierson CR, Rakowsky AT, Maver A,Lovre I L, Palanda I A, Peterlin B, Torkamani A, Wedell A, Huss M, Alexeyenko A, Lindvall JM, Magnusson M, Nilsson D, Stranneheim H, Taylan F, Gilissen C,Hoischen A, van Bon B, Yntema H, Nelen M, Zhang W, Sager J, Zhang L, Blair K, Kural D, Cariaso M, Lennon GG, Javed A, Agrawal S, Ng PC, Sandhu KS,Krishna S, Veeramachaneni V, Isakov O, Halperin E, Friedman E, Shomron N, Glusman G, Roach JC, Caballero J, Cox HC, Mauldin D, Ament SA, Rowen L,Richards DR, Lucas FA, Gonzalez-Garay ML, Caskey CT, Bai Y, Huang Y, Fang F, Zhang Y, Wang Z, Barrera J, Garcia-Lobo JM, González-Lamuño D, Llorca J,Rodriguez MC, Varela I, Reese MG, De La Vega FM, Kiruluta E, Cargill M, Hart RK, Sorenson JM, Lyon GJ, Stevenson DA, Bray BE, Moore BM, Eilbeck K, Yandell M, Zhao H, Hou L, Chen X, Yan X, Chen M, Li C, Yang C, Gunel M, Li P, Kong Y, Alexander AC, Albertyn ZI, Boycott KM, Bulman DE, Gordon PM, Innes AM,Knoppers BM, Majewski J, Marshall CR, Parboosingh JS, Sawyer SL, Samuels ME, Schwartzentruber J, Kohane IS, Margulies DM.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data was donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance.

RESULTS:

A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization.

CONCLUSIONS:

The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups.