PreMeta

PreMeta converts and harmonizes study-level summary statistics produced by MASS, RAREMETAL, MetaSKAT, and seqMeta to enable meta-analysis of rare-variant sequencing studies.

Key Features:

• Compatibility Resolution: Resolves incompatibility issues from using MASS, RAREMETAL, MetaSKAT, and seqMeta by reformatting summary statistics from text files, binary files, and R data files into a common format for integration.
• Format Translation: Translates study-level summary statistics between MASS, RAREMETAL, MetaSKAT, and seqMeta formats to enable meta-analyses without repeating initial study-level analyses in consortium settings.
• Error Checking and Correction: Identifies and corrects allele mismatches in summary statistics to preserve data integrity for subsequent meta-analysis.
• Rescaling Capability: Applies rescaled inverse normal transformation by adjusting summary statistics to maintain statistical consistency across studies with different measurement scales.
• Computational Efficiency: Reduces the need to repeat study-level analyses, decreasing computational time and resource use for large-scale sequencing consortia.

Scientific Applications:

• Cross-study rare-variant meta-analysis: Combines summary statistics from sequencing studies analyzed with MASS, RAREMETAL, MetaSKAT, or seqMeta to support rare-variant association meta-analyses.
• Consortium harmonization: Harmonizes summary statistics across analytical platforms to support reproducible genetic studies of complex diseases.

Methodology:

Accepts output files from MASS, RAREMETAL, MetaSKAT, and seqMeta; reformats text, binary, and R data files into a common summary-statistic format; performs allele mismatch correction; and applies rescaled inverse normal transformation by adjusting summary statistics.