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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the forensic science community, there is an immense need for tools to help assist investigations where conventional DNA profiling methods have been non-informative. Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) aims to bridge that gap and aid investigations by providing physical appearance information when other investigative methods have been exhausted. To create a “biological eye witness”, it becomes necessary to constantly improve these methods in order to develop a complete and accurate image of the individual who left the sample. To add to our previous prediction systems IrisPlex and HIrisPlex, we have developed the HIrisPlex-S system for the all-in-one combined prediction of eye, hair, and skin color from DNA. The skin color prediction model uses 36 variants that were recently proposed for the accurate prediction of categorical skin color on a global scale, and the system is completed by the developmental validation of a 17-plex capillary electrophoresis (CE) genotyping assay that is run in conjunction with the HIrisPlex assay to generate these genotypes. The predicted skin color output includes Very Pale, Pale, Intermediate, Dark and Dark-to-Black categories in addition to categorical eye (Blue, Intermediate, and Brown) and hair (Black, Brown, Blond, and Red) color predictions. We demonstrate that the HIrisPlex-S assay performs in full agreement with guidelines from the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM), achieving high sensitivity levels with a minimum 63pg DNA input. In addition to adding skin color to complete the pigmentation prediction system termed HIrisPlex-S, we successfully designed a Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) assay to complement the system and bring Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to the forefront of forensic DNA analyses methods. Using Illumina’s MiSeq system enables the generation of HIrisPlex-S’s 41 variants using sequencing data that has the capacity to xiii better deconvolute mixtures and perform with even more sensitivity and accuracy. This transition opens the door for a plethora of new ways in which this physical appearance assay can grow as sequencing technology is not limited by variant number; therefore, in essence many more traits have the potential to be included in this one assay design. For now, the HIrisPlex-S design of 41 variants using MPS is being fully assessed according to SWGDAM validated guidelines; therefore, this design paves the way for Forensic DNA Phenotyping to be used in any forensic laboratory. This new and improved HIrisPlex-S system will have a profound impact on casework, missing persons cases, and anthropological cases, as it is relatively inexpensive to run, HIrisPlex-S is easy to use, developmentally validated and one of the largest systems freely available online for physical appearance prediction from DNA using the freely available online web tool found at https://hirisplex.erasmusmc.nl/. Lastly, moving forward in our aim to include additional traits for prediction from DNA, we contributed to a large-scale research collaboration to unearth variants associated with hair morphology. 1026 samples were successfully sequenced using an inhouse MPS design at 91 proposed hair morphological loci. From this reaction, we were able to contribute to the identification of significant correlations between the SNPs rs2219783, rs310642 and rs80293268 with categorical hair morphology: straight, wavy or curly.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the forensic science community, there is a vast need for tools to help assist investigations when standard DNA profiling methods are uninformative. Methods such as Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) and proteomics aims to help this problem and provide aid in investigations when other methods have been exhausted. FDP is useful by providing physical appearance information, while proteomics allows for the examination of difficult samples, such as hair, to infer human identity and ancestry. To create a “biological eye witness” or develop informative probability of identity match statistics through proteomically inferred genetic profiles, it is necessary to constantly strive to improve these methods. Currently, two developmentally validated FDP prediction assays, ‘HIrisPlex’ and ‘HIrisplex-S’, are used on the capillary electrophoresis to develop a phenotypic prediction for eye, hair, and skin color based on 41 variants. Although highly useful, these assays are limited in their ability when used on the CE due to a 25 variant per assay cap. To overcome these limitations and expand the capacities of FDP, we successfully designed and validated a massive parallel sequencing (MPS) assay for use on both the ThermoFisher Scientific Ion Torrent and Illumina MiSeq systems that incorporates all HIrisPlex-S variants into one sensitive assay. With the migration of this assay to an MPS platform, we were able to create a semi-automated pipeline to extract SNP-specific sequencing data that can then be easily uploaded to the freely accessible online phenotypic prediction tool (found at https://hirisplex.erasmusmc.nl) and a mixture deconvolution tool with built-in read count thresholds. Based on sequencing reads counts, this tool can be used to assist in the separation of difficult two-person mixture samples and outline the confidence in each genotype call. In addition to FDP, proteomic methods, specifically in hair protein analysis, opens doors and possibilities for forensic investigations when standard DNA profiling methods come up short. Here, we analyzed 233 genetically variant peptides (GVPs) within hair-associated proteins and genes for 66 individuals. We assessed the proteomic methods ability to accurately infer and detect genotypes at each of the 233 SNPs and generated statistics for the probability of identity (PID). Of these markers, 32 passed all quality control and population genetics criteria and displayed an average PID of 3.58 x 10-4. A population genetics assessment was also conducted to identify any SNP that could be used to infer ancestry and/or identity. Providing this information is valuable for the future use of this set of markers for human identification in forensic science settings.

<p>Advances in sequencing technologies constantly improves the throughput andaccuracy of sequencing instruments. Together with this development comes newdemands and opportunities to fully take advantage of the massive amounts of dataproduced within a sequence run. One way of doing this is by analyzing a large set ofsamples in parallel by pooling them together prior to sequencing and associating thereads to the corresponding samples using DNA sequence tags. Amplicon sequencingis a common application for this technique, enabling ultra deep sequencing andidentification of rare allelic variants. However, a common problem for ampliconsequencing projects is formation of unspecific PCR products and primer dimersoccupying large portions of the data sets.</p><p>This thesis is based on two papers exploring these new kinds of possibilities andissues. In the first paper, a method for including thousands of samples in the samesequencing run without dramatically increasing the cost or sample handlingcomplexity is presented. The second paper presents how the amount of high qualitydata from an amplicon sequencing run can be maximized.</p><p>The findings from the first paper shows that a two-tagging system, where the first tagis introduced by PCR and the second tag is introduced by ligation, can be used foreffectively sequence a cohort of 3500 samples using the 454 GS FLX Titaniumchemistry. The tagging procedure allows for simple and easy scalable samplehandling during sequence library preparation. The first PCR introduced tags, that arepresent in both ends of the fragments, enables detection of chimeric formation andhence, avoiding false typing in the data set.</p><p>In the second paper, a FACS-machine is used to sort and enrich target DNA covered emPCR beads. This is facilitated by tagging quality beads using hybridization of afluorescently labeled target specific DNA probe prior to sorting. The system wasevaluated by sequencing two amplicon libraries, one FACS sorted and one standardenriched, on the 454 showing a three-fold increase of quality data obtained.</p> / QC20100907

A surdez pode ser causada por fatores ambientais, genéticos ou ambos. Do ponto de vista genético, a surdez é extremamente heterogênea, pois é condicionada por mutações em diversos genes localizados em diferentes cromossomos, podendo exibir mecanismos de herança diversos. O objetivo desse estudo foi identificar novos genes e mutações relacionados à perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante. Foram estudadas molecularmente cinco famílias. A família 1 foi averiguada na cidade de Maringá-PR. Apresenta 20 indivíduos afetados pela síndrome Oto-branquial (BOS). Estudos de mapeamento gênico com arrays de SNPs mostraram um Lod Score sugestivo de ligação para uma região do cromossomo 8, onde está localizado o gene EYA1, já relacionado à síndrome. O sequenciamento dos exons do gene não revelou mutação. No entanto, estudos de array-CGH e de PCR em tempo real permitiram detectar uma duplicação de aproximadamente 86 kb no gene EYA1 em 11 dos 12 indivíduos afetados testados da família, ausente nos indivíduos fenotipicamente normais. Portanto, concluímos que a síndrome nessa família é decorrente dessa duplicação, nunca antes descrita em casos de BOS. A família 2 foi averiguada na cidade de São Miguel-RN, com 16 indivíduos afetados por perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante não sindrômica. Estudos de mapeamento gênico com marcadores moleculares do tipo microssatélites e cálculos de Lod Score indicaram uma região no cromossomo 3 como candidata a conter o gene responsável pelo fenótipo na família. Estudos de sequenciamento massivo em paralelo da amostra de um indivíduo afetado apontaram três variantes missense em heterozigose como sendo as mais prováveis causas do fenótipo, mas duas delas foram excluídas com base em estudos de segregação. A terceira variante foi triada em uma coleção de 47 amostras de probandos de famílias com surdez autossômica dominante, mas não foi encontrada. Há estudos em andamento buscando confirmar seu papel na surdez hereditária. A família 3 foi averiguada na cidade de São Paulo-SP e apresenta 15 indivíduos afetados por perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante não sindrômica. Estudos de mapeamento gênico com o uso de arrays de SNPs e cálculos de Lod Score mapearam uma região no cromossomo 20 como candidata a conter o gene responsável pelo fenótipo. Estudos de sequenciamento massivo em paralelo de amostras de dois indivíduos afetados apontaram três variantes missense em heterozigose como as mais prováveis causas do quadro. Estudos de segregação excluíram duas das variantes e a terceira variante foi triada na coleção de 47 amostras de probandos de famílias com surdez de herança dominante, mas não foi encontrada. Outros estudos estão em andamento para verificar seu papel na surdez. A família 4 foi averiguada na cidade de Porto Alegre-RS e apresenta 11 indivíduos afetados por perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante não sindrômica. Estudos de mapeamento genético com o uso de arrays de SNPs e de cálculo de Lod Score mapearam duas regiões, nos cromossomos 14 e 22, como candidatas a conter o gene responsável. Estudos de sequenciamento massivo em paralelo em amostras de três indivíduos afetados apontaram 3 variantes missense em heterozigose nas regiões mapeadas (duas no cromossomo 14 e uma no cromossomo 22). Observamos que somente a variante rs80338828 no gene MYH9, no cromossomo 22, segrega com o fenótipo. Essa variante já foi previamente relacionada à perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante e provavelmente explica a perda auditiva na família. A família 5 foi averiguada na cidade de São Paulo-SP e apresenta 30 indivíduos afetados por perda auditiva de herança autossômica dominante e não sindrômica. Estudos de ligação com arrays de SNPs e cálculos de Lod Score não apontaram a região candidata devido a limitações computacionais e à estrutura da genealogia. Estudos de sequenciamento massivo em paralelo de amostras de quatro indivíduos afetados apontaram 13 variantes presentes nos quatro, em heterozigose. Foram selecionadas para estudo duas das variantes, uma no gene MYO3A, por se tratar de um gene já relacionado à perda auditiva e uma no gene LONP2, por se tratar de uma mutação de códon de parada prematuro. Estudos de segregação mostraram que a variante no gene LONP2 não segrega com o fenótipo na família e que a variante no gene MYO3A parece segregar com o fenótipo, exceto por sua ausência em um indivíduo afetado e sua presença em sete indivíduos aparentemente normais, que poderiam ser não-penetrantes. Mutações no gene MYO3A já foram relacionadas previamente à perda auditiva de herança autossômica recessiva, mas chama a atenção o fato do padrão de herança nessa família ser o dominante. Mais estudos são necessários para confirmar o papel dessa e de outras variantes no fenótipo da família. Portanto, o estudo molecular das cinco famílias revelou dois possíveis novos genes de surdez, um novo mecanismo mutacional na síndrome BOS, mutação em gene já conhecido e hipótese de novo mecanismo de herança para mutação no gene MYO3A / Deafness can be caused by environmental factors, genetic factors or both. Genetic deafness is highly heterogeneous, because it is caused by mutations in many genes located in different chromosomes and can be explained by different inheritance patterns. The aim of this study was to identify new genes and search for new mutations related to autosomal dominant hearing loss. Five families were selected for molecular studies. Family 1 was ascertained in Maringá-PR. It includes 20 individuals affected by Branchio-oto syndrome (BOS). Genomic scanning with SNP arrays showed suggestive Lod scores on a region at chromosome 8, where the EYA1 gene is located, already known to be related to this syndrome. Sequencing of all exons of the gene did not reveal the mutation. However, array-CGH and real time PCR studies detected a duplication of 86 kb on EYA1 gene, in 11 of the 12 affected individuals tested, and it was absent in the unaffected individuals. Our findings implicate this EYA1 duplication in the BOS1 phenotype observed in the pedigree. Large duplications in EYA1 gene were not reported before. Family 2 was ascertained at São Miguel-RN, with 16 individuals affected by non syndromic autosomal dominant hearing loss. Genomic scanning with microsatellites and Lod score calculations mapped a region at chromosome 3 as candidate to contain the gene responsible for the phenotype in the family. Massive Parallel Sequencing of a sample from one affected individual indicated 3 missense variants in heterozygosis that could explain the phenotype. Two variants were excluded after segregation studies. The third variant was screened in a cohort of 47 probands from families with individuals affected by autosomal dominant hearing loss and it was not detected. Further studies are needed to confirm its role in hearing loss. Family 3 was ascertained in São Paulo-SP and presents 15 individuals affected by non syndromic autosomal dominant hearing loss. Genomic scanning with SNP arrays and Lod score calculations suggested a region at chromosome 20 as the candidate to contain the gene that causes the phenotype. Massive Parallel Sequencing with samples from two affected individuals suggested 3 missense variants in heterozygosis that could explain the phenotype. Two variants were excluded after segregation studies and one variation was selected as the best candidate to explain the phenotype. We searched for this variant in a cohort of 47 probands from families with individuals affected by autosomal dominant hearing loss and it was not detected. Other studies are being conducted to confirm the role of this variation in deafness. Family 4 was ascertained at Porto Alegre-RS and presents 11 individuals affected by non syndromic autosomal dominant hearing loss. Genomic scanning with SNP arrays and Lod score calculations indicated two regions, at chromosomes 14 and 22, as the best candidates to contain the hearing loss gene. Massive Parallel Sequencing studies with samples from 3 affected individuals indicated 3 missense variants in heterozygosis (two variants at chromosome 14 and one at chromosome 22). We observed that only the variant rs80338828, in MYH9 gene, in chromosome 22, segregates with the phenotype. This variant was previously related to autosomal dominant hearing loss and probably explains the phenotype observed in this family. Family 5 was ascertained at São Paulo-SP and presents 30 individuals affected by non syndromic autosomal dominant hearing loss. Genomic scanning with SNP arrays and Lod score calculations did not indicate candidate regions due to computer limitations. Massive Parallel Sequence studies with samples from four affected individuals suggested 13 candidate variants, in heterozygosis. Two variants were selected for further studies: one in MYO3A, previously related to hearing loss, and one in LONP2 gene, a nonsense mutation. Segregation studies showed the LONP2 variant did not segregate with the phenotype and MYO3A variant seems to segregate with the phenotype, except for its absence in one affected individual and its presence in seven unaffected ones, who could be nonpenetrants. Mutations in MYO3A were previously related to autosomal recessive hearing loss, but the family described here presents autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. More studies are needed to explain the role of this variant in the phenotype. Thus, the molecular study of five pedigrees revealed two novel candidate genes for deafness, one novel mutation mechanism in BOS, a mutation in one previously known gene and the possibility of a novel inheritance mechanism for a MYO3A mutation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:57:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3157_1.pdf: 3737373 bytes, checksum: 7ca491f9a72f2e9cf51764a7acac3e3c (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Esta dissertação introduz uma estrutura de dados baseada em gride implementada em GPU. Ela foi desenvolvida para pesquisa dos vizinhos mais próximos em nuvens de pontos dinâmicas, de uma forma massivamente paralela. A implementação possui desempenho em tempo real e é executada em GPU, ambas construção do gride e pesquisas dos vizinhos mais próximos (exatos e aproximados). Dessa forma, a transferência de memória entre sistema e dispositivo é minimizada, aumentando o desempenho de uma forma geral. O algoritmo proposto pode ser usado em diferentes aplicações com cenários estáticos ou dinâmicos. Além disso, a estrutura de dados suporta nuvens de pontos tridimensionais e dada sua natureza dinâmica, o usuário pode mudar seus parâmetros em tempo de execução. O mesmo se aplica ao número de vizinhos pesquisados. Uma referência em CPU foi implementada e comparações de desempenho justificam o uso de GPUs como processadores massivamente paralelos. Em adição, o desempenho da estrutura de dados proposta é comparada com implementações em CPU e GPU de trabalhos anteriores. Finalmente, uma aplicação de renderização baseada em pontos foi desenvolvida de forma a verificar o potencial da estrutura de dados

Advances in sequencing technologies constantly improves the throughput andaccuracy of sequencing instruments. Together with this development comes newdemands and opportunities to fully take advantage of the massive amounts of dataproduced within a sequence run. One way of doing this is by analyzing a large set ofsamples in parallel by pooling them together prior to sequencing and associating thereads to the corresponding samples using DNA sequence tags. Amplicon sequencingis a common application for this technique, enabling ultra deep sequencing andidentification of rare allelic variants. However, a common problem for ampliconsequencing projects is formation of unspecific PCR products and primer dimersoccupying large portions of the data sets. This thesis is based on two papers exploring these new kinds of possibilities andissues. In the first paper, a method for including thousands of samples in the samesequencing run without dramatically increasing the cost or sample handlingcomplexity is presented. The second paper presents how the amount of high qualitydata from an amplicon sequencing run can be maximized. The findings from the first paper shows that a two-tagging system, where the first tagis introduced by PCR and the second tag is introduced by ligation, can be used foreffectively sequence a cohort of 3500 samples using the 454 GS FLX Titaniumchemistry. The tagging procedure allows for simple and easy scalable samplehandling during sequence library preparation. The first PCR introduced tags, that arepresent in both ends of the fragments, enables detection of chimeric formation andhence, avoiding false typing in the data set. In the second paper, a FACS-machine is used to sort and enrich target DNA covered emPCR beads. This is facilitated by tagging quality beads using hybridization of afluorescently labeled target specific DNA probe prior to sorting. The system wasevaluated by sequencing two amplicon libraries, one FACS sorted and one standardenriched, on the 454 showing a three-fold increase of quality data obtained. / QC20100907

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Skewed X chromosome inactivation has been often studied as a possible factor that influences manifestation of X-linked diseases in heterozygous women. Yet the association between phenotype and degree of skewing stays unclear for most disorders. Current works rely mostly on methods that are based on methyl-sensitive restriction while determining the X inactivation pattern and mainly the HUMARA assay which investigates the methylation profile in the AR gene. However those methods have some known disadvantages and therefore we are still seeking new methodical approaches. We used DNA isolated from whole blood and in some cases also buccal swabs to asses X inactivation patterns in 54 women using methylation-based methods for loci AR, CNKSR2 and RP2. Transcription-based assay was utilized to evaluate skewing of X inactivation in 32 of those women, whose samples were available for RNA extraction, using massive parallel sequencing and polymorphisms LAMP2 c.156A>T, IDS c.438C>T and ABCD1 c.1548G>A. Partly thanks to almost no stuttering during PCR the RP2 locus was the most informative in our study (71 % of women) and approximately the same number of women (69 %) were informative for the HUMARA assay. However when comparing the results of those two methods we determined difference greater than 10 % in...

Given a very large dataset of moderate-to-high dimensionality, how to mine useful patterns from it? In such cases, dimensionality reduction is essential to overcome the well-known curse of dimensionality. Although there exist algorithms to reduce the dimensionality of Big Data, unfortunately, they all fail to identify/eliminate non-linear correlations that may occur between the attributes. This MSc work tackles the problem by exploring concepts of the Fractal Theory and massive parallel processing to present Curl-Remover, a novel dimensionality reduction technique for very large datasets. Our contributions are: (a) Curl-Remover eliminates linear and non-linear attribute correlations as well as irrelevant attributes; (b) it is unsupervised and suits for analytical tasks in general not only classification; (c) it presents linear scale-up on both the data size and the number of machines used; (d) it does not require the user to guess the number of attributes to be removed, and; (e) it preserves the attributes semantics by performing feature selection, not feature extraction. We executed experiments on synthetic and real data spanning up to 1.1 billion points, and report that our proposed Curl-Remover outperformed two PCA-based algorithms from the state-of-the-art, being in average up to 8% more accurate. / Dada uma grande base de dados de dimensionalidade moderada a alta, como identificar padrões úteis nos objetos de dados? Nesses casos, a redução de dimensionalidade é essencial para superar um fenômeno conhecido na literatura como a maldição da alta dimensionalidade. Embora existam algoritmos capazes de reduzir a dimensionalidade de conjuntos de dados na escala de Terabytes, infelizmente, todos falham em relação à identificação/eliminação de correlações não lineares entre os atributos. Este trabalho de Mestrado trata o problema explorando conceitos da Teoria de Fractais e processamento paralelo em massa para apresentar Curl-Remover, uma nova técnica de redução de dimensionalidade bem adequada ao pré-processamento de Big Data. Suas principais contribuições são: (a) Curl-Remover elimina correlações lineares e não lineares entre atributos, bem como atributos irrelevantes; (b) não depende de supervisão do usuário e é útil para tarefas analíticas em geral não apenas para a classificação; (c) apresenta escalabilidade linear tanto em relação ao número de objetos de dados quanto ao número de máquinas utilizadas; (d) não requer que o usuário sugira um número de atributos para serem removidos, e; (e) mantêm a semântica dos atributos por ser uma técnica de seleção de atributos, não de extração de atributos. Experimentos foram executados em conjuntos de dados sintéticos e reais contendo até 1,1 bilhões de pontos, e a nova técnica Curl-Remover apresentou desempenho superior comparada a dois algoritmos do estado da arte baseados em PCA, obtendo em média até 8% a mais em acurácia de resultados.