Exploration of Coding and Non-coding Variants in Cancer Using GenomePaint

• Published in: Cancer cell 2021-01, Vol.39 (1), p.83-95.e4
• Main Authors: Zhou, Xin, Wang, Jian, Patel, Jaimin, Valentine, Marc, Shao, Ying, Newman, Scott, Sioson, Edgar, Tian, Liqing, Liu, Yu, Brady, Samuel W, Flasch, Diane, Ma, Xiaotu, Liu, Yanling, Paul, Robin, Edmonson, Michael N, Rusch, Michael C, Li, Chunliang, Baker, Suzanne J, Easton, John, Zhang, Jinghui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Cell Line, Tumor; Child; Computational Biology - methods; Databases, Genetic; Epigenesis, Genetic; Female; Gene Expression Profiling - methods; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Genetic Variation; Humans; Male; Neoplasms - genetics; User-Computer Interface; Whole Exome Sequencing; Whole Genome Sequencing
• ISSN: 1535-6108; 1878-3686
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.12.011

GenomePaint (https://genomepaint.stjude.cloud/) is an interactive visualization platform for whole-genome, whole-exome, transcriptome, and epigenomic data of tumor samples. Its design captures the inter-relatedness between DNA variations and RNA expression, supporting in-depth exploration of both individual cancer genomes and full cohorts. Regulatory non-coding variants can be inspected and analyzed along with coding variants, and their functional impact further explored by examining 3D genome data from cancer cell lines. Further, GenomePaint correlates mutation and expression patterns with patient outcomes, and supports custom data upload. We used GenomePaint to unveil aberrant splicing that disrupts the RING domain of CREBBP, discover cis activation of the MYC oncogene by duplication of the NOTCH1-MYC enhancer in B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and explore the inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity at EGFR in adult glioblastomas. These examples demonstrate that deep multi-omics exploration of individual cancer genomes enabled by GenomePaint can lead to biological insights for follow-up validation.