scholarly journals NormiRazor – Tool Applying GPU-accelerated Computing for Determination of Internal References in MicroRNA Transcription Studies

Author(s):  
Szymon Grabia ◽  
Ula Smyczynska ◽  
Konrad Pagacz ◽  
Wojciech Fendler

AbstractMotivationMulti-gene expression assays are an attractive tool in revealing complex regulatory mechanisms in living organisms. Normalization is an indispensable step of data analysis in all those studies, since it removes unwanted, non-biological variability from data. In targeted qPCR assays the normalization is typically performed with respect to prespecified reference genes, but the lack of robust strategy of their selection is reported in literature, especially in studies concerning circulating microRNAs (miRNA).ResultsPrevious studies concluded that averaged expressions of multi-miRNA combinations are more stable references than single genes. However, due to the number of such combinations the computational load is considerable and may be hindering for objective reference selection in large datasets. Existing implementations of normalization algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper) have poor performance as every combination is evaluated sequentially. Thus, we designed an integrative tool which implemented those methods in a parallel manner on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using CUDA platform. We tested our approach on publicly available microRNA expression datasets. As a result the times of executions decreased 19-, 105- and 77-fold respectively for geNorm, BestKeeper and NormFinder.AvailabilityNormiRazor is available as web application at norm.btm.umed.pl.ContactWojciech Fendler, [email protected].

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Szymon Grabia ◽  
Urszula Smyczynska ◽  
Konrad Pagacz ◽  
Wojciech Fendler

Abstract Background Multi-gene expression assays are an attractive tool in revealing complex regulatory mechanisms in living organisms. Normalization is an indispensable step of data analysis in all those studies, since it removes unwanted, non-biological variability from data. In targeted qPCR assays it is typically performed with respect to prespecified reference genes, but the lack of robust strategy of their selection is reported in literature, especially in studies concerning circulating microRNAs (miRNA). Unfortunately, this problem impedes translation of scientific discoveries on miRNA biomarkers into widely available laboratory assays. Previous studies concluded that averaged expressions of multi-miRNA combinations are more stable references than single genes. However, due to the number of such combinations the computational load is considerable and may be hindering for objective reference selection in large datasets. Existing implementations of normalization algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper) have poor performance and may require days to compute stability values for all potential reference as the evaluation is performed sequentially. Results We designed NormiRazor - an integrative tool which implements those methods in a parallel manner on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using CUDA platform. We tested our approach on publicly available miRNA expression datasets. As a result, the times of executions on 8 datasets containing from 50 to 400 miRNAs (subsets of GSE68314) decreased 18.7 ±0.6 (mean ±SD), 104.7 ±4.2 and 76.5 ±2.2 times for geNorm, BestKeeper and NormFinder with respect to previous Python implementation. To allow for easy access to normalization pipeline for biomedical researchers we implemented NormiRazor as an online platform where a user could normalize their datasets based on the automatically selected references. It is available at norm.btm.umed.pl, together with instruction manual and exemplary datasets. Conclusions NormiRazor allows for an easy, informed choice of reference genes for qPCR transcriptomic studies. As such it can improve comparability and repeatability of experiments and in longer perspective help translate newly discovered biomarkers into readily available assays.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrick H. Rothganger ◽  
Kurt W. Larson ◽  
Antonio Ignacio Gonzales ◽  
Daniel S. Myers

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5212
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bak

A key question confronting computational chemists concerns the preferable ligand geometry that fits complementarily into the receptor pocket. Typically, the postulated ‘bioactive’ 3D ligand conformation is constructed as a ‘sophisticated guess’ (unnecessarily geometry-optimized) mirroring the pharmacophore hypothesis—sometimes based on an erroneous prerequisite. Hence, 4D-QSAR scheme and its ‘dialects’ have been practically implemented as higher level of model abstraction that allows the examination of the multiple molecular conformation, orientation and protonation representation, respectively. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the eminent work of Hopfinger appeared on the stage; therefore the natural question occurs whether 4D-QSAR approach is still appealing to the scientific community? With no intention to be comprehensive, a review of the current state of art in the field of receptor-independent (RI) and receptor-dependent (RD) 4D-QSAR methodology is provided with a brief examination of the ‘mainstream’ algorithms. In fact, a myriad of 4D-QSAR methods have been implemented and applied practically for a diverse range of molecules. It seems that, 4D-QSAR approach has been experiencing a promising renaissance of interests that might be fuelled by the rising power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters applied to full-atom MD-based simulations of the protein-ligand complexes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
David Langerman ◽  
Alan George

High-resolution, low-latency apps in computer vision are ubiquitous in today’s world of mixed-reality devices. These innovations provide a platform that can leverage the improving technology of depth sensors and embedded accelerators to enable higher-resolution, lower-latency processing for 3D scenes using depth-upsampling algorithms. This research demonstrates that filter-based upsampling algorithms are feasible for mixed-reality apps using low-power hardware accelerators. The authors parallelized and evaluated a depth-upsampling algorithm on two different devices: a reconfigurable-logic FPGA embedded within a low-power SoC; and a fixed-logic embedded graphics processing unit. We demonstrate that both accelerators can meet the real-time requirements of 11 ms latency for mixed-reality apps. 1


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