AlmostSignificant

AlmostSignificant is an open-source software tool that simplifies and streamlines the quality control (QC) process for DNA sequencing data generated by Illumina sequencing machines. It aggregates quality metrics and meta-data from multiple sources associated with sequencing runs and samples, providing a user-friendly graphical interface for monitoring and storing this information.

The motivation behind AlmostSignificant stems from the large volume of data produced by current DNA sequencing technologies, which requires extensive QC processing and checking before analysis. The manual QC process is time-consuming and complex, involving integrating information from various sources.

AlmostSignificant addresses these challenges by offering a centralized platform to collect, store, and visualize QC metrics and meta-data. It simplifies the monitoring of sequencing data quality and retains extra metadata that is not typically stored, providing a comprehensive resource for future reference.

The software has been successfully used to track the quality of over 80 sequencing runs, covering over 2,500 samples generated over three years. It demonstrates its practical utility in managing and overseeing the QC process for large-scale DNA sequencing projects.