Tobias Helms

Dr. Tobias Helms


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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22 December 2022 in Genes
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
IHInsa Halfmeyer
Insa Halfmeyer
TBTobias Bartolomaeus
Tobias Bartolomaeus
BPBernt Popp
Bernt Popp
MRMaximilian Radtke
Maximilian Radtke
THTobias Helms
Tobias Helms
RJRami Abou Jamra
Rami Abou Jamra
The re-analysis of nondiagnostic exome sequencing (ES) has the potential to increase diagnostic yields in individuals with rare diseases, but its implementation in the daily routines of laboratories is limited due to restricted capacities. Here, we describe a systematic approach to re-analyse the ES data of a cohort consisting of 1040 diagnostic and nondiagnostic samples. We applied a strict filter cascade to reveal the most promising single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) of the whole cohort, which led to an average of 0.77 variants per individual that had to be manually evaluated. This variant set revealed seven novel diagnoses (0.8% of all nondiagnostic cases) and two secondary findings. Thirteen additional variants were identified by a scientific approach prior to this re-analysis and were also present in this variant set. This resulted in a total increase in the diagnostic yield of 2.3%. The filter cascade was optimised during the course of the study and finally resulted in sensitivity of 85%. After applying the filter cascade, our re-analysis took 20 h and enabled a workflow that can be used repeatedly. This work is intended to provide a practical recommendation for other laboratories wishing to introduce a resource-efficient re-analysis strategy into their clinical routine.