DOTSeq

DifferentialRegulation is a method for detecting differentially regulated genes between two groups of samples (e.g., healthy vs. disease, or treated vs. untreated samples), by targeting differences in the balance of spliced and unspliced mRNA abundances, obtained from single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. From a mathematical point of view, DifferentialRegulation accounts for the sample-to-sample variability, and embeds multiple samples in a Bayesian hierarchical model. Furthermore, our method also deals with two major sources of mapping uncertainty: i) 'ambiguous' reads, compatible with both spliced and unspliced versions of a gene, and ii) reads mapping to multiple genes. In particular, ambiguous reads are treated separately from spliced and unsplced reads, while reads that are compatible with multiple genes are allocated to the gene of origin. Parameters are inferred via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques (Metropolis-within-Gibbs).

Differential expression analysis of sequence count data. Implements a range of statistical methodology based on the negative binomial distributions, including empirical Bayes estimation, exact tests, generalized linear models, quasi-likelihood, and gene set enrichment. Can perform differential analyses of any type of omics data that produces read counts, including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, Bisulfite-seq, SAGE, CAGE, metabolomics, or proteomics spectral counts. RNA-seq analyses can be conducted at the gene or isoform level, and tests can be conducted for differential exon or transcript usage.

Integrating an increasing number of available multi-omics cancer data remains one of the main challenges to improve our understanding of cancer. One of the main challenges is using multi-omics data for identifying novel cancer driver genes. We have developed an algorithm, called AMARETTO, that integrates copy number, DNA methylation and gene expression data to identify a set of driver genes by analyzing cancer samples and connects them to clusters of co-expressed genes, which we define as modules. We applied AMARETTO in a pancancer setting to identify cancer driver genes and their modules on multiple cancer sites. AMARETTO captures modules enriched in angiogenesis, cell cycle and EMT, and modules that accurately predict survival and molecular subtypes. This allows AMARETTO to identify novel cancer driver genes directing canonical cancer pathways.

distinct is a statistical method to perform differential testing between two or more groups of distributions; differential testing is performed via hierarchical non-parametric permutation tests on the cumulative distribution functions (cdfs) of each sample. While most methods for differential expression target differences in the mean abundance between conditions, distinct, by comparing full cdfs, identifies, both, differential patterns involving changes in the mean, as well as more subtle variations that do not involve the mean (e.g., unimodal vs. bi-modal distributions with the same mean). distinct is a general and flexible tool: due to its fully non-parametric nature, which makes no assumptions on how the data was generated, it can be applied to a variety of datasets. It is particularly suitable to perform differential state analyses on single cell data (i.e., differential analyses within sub-populations of cells), such as single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and high-dimensional flow or mass cytometry (HDCyto) data. To use distinct one needs data from two or more groups of samples (i.e., experimental conditions), with at least 2 samples (i.e., biological replicates) per group.

Recent advances in single cell/nucleus transcriptomic technology has enabled collection of cohort-scale datasets to study cell type specific gene expression differences associated disease state, stimulus, and genetic regulation. The scale of these data, complex study designs, and low read count per cell mean that characterizing cell type specific molecular mechanisms requires a user-frieldly, purpose-build analytical framework. We have developed the dreamlet package that applies a pseudobulk approach and fits a regression model for each gene and cell cluster to test differential expression across individuals associated with a trait of interest. Use of precision-weighted linear mixed models enables accounting for repeated measures study designs, high dimensional batch effects, and varying sequencing depth or observed cells per biosample.

satuRn provides a higly performant and scalable framework for performing differential transcript usage analyses. The package consists of three main functions. The first function, fitDTU, fits quasi-binomial generalized linear models that model transcript usage in different groups of interest. The second function, testDTU, tests for differential usage of transcripts between groups of interest. Finally, plotDTU visualizes the usage profiles of transcripts in groups of interest.