VISMapper: ultra-fast exhaustive cartography of viral insertion sites for gene therapy

BACKGROUND: The possibility of integrating viral vectors to become a persistent part of the host genome makes them a crucial element of clinical gene therapy. However, viral integration has associated risks, such as the unintentional activation of oncogenes that can result in cancer. Therefore, the analysis of integration sites of retroviral vectors is a crucial step in developing safer vectors for therapeutic use. RESULTS: Here we present VISMapper, a vector integration site analysis web server, to analyze next-generation sequencing data for retroviral vector integration sites. VISMapper can be found at: http://vismapper.babelomics.org. CONCLUSIONS: Because it uses novel mapping algorithms VISMapper is remarkably faster than previous available programs. It also provides a useful graphical interface to analyze the integration sites found in the genomic context.