NGS-Logistics: federated analysis of NGS sequence variants across multiple locations

As many personal genomes are being sequenced, collaborative analysis of those genomes has become essential. However, analysis of personal genomic data raises important privacy and confidentiality issues. We propose a methodology for federated analysis of sequence variants from personal genomes. Specific base-pair positions and/or regions are queried for samples to which the user has access but also for the whole population. The statistics results do not breach data confidentiality but allow further exploration of the data; researchers can negotiate access to relevant samples through pseudonymous identifiers. This approach minimizes the impact on data confidentiality while enabling powerful data analysis by gaining access to important rare samples. Our methodology is implemented in an open source tool called NGS-Logistics, freely available at https://ngsl.esat.kuleuven.be.