SAPTICoN, a robust no-code pipeline to analyze single cell transcriptomics data sets

SAPTICoN is a robust, no-code, Snakemake-based pipeline built on the Seurat framework that enables biologists with limited computational expertise to perform reproducible single-cell transcriptomic analyses on non-model species and poorly annotated tissues by automatically generating necessary annotation packages.

Pichot, C., Verdenaud, M., Sandri, A., Adam, G., Delannoy, E., Hilson, P.2026-03-27💻 bioinformatics

Horse, not zebra: accounting for lineage abundance in maximum likelihood phylogenetics

This paper introduces two maximum likelihood methods that incorporate lineage abundance priors—interpreting multifurcations as unresolved signals of common strains or modeling sequencing rates proportional to prevalence—to significantly improve the accuracy of phylogenetic inference for rapidly evolving pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 by prioritizing the placement of sequences onto common ("horse") rather than rare ("zebra") lineages.

De Maio, N.2026-03-27💻 bioinformatics

Adding layers of information to scRNA-seq data using pre-trained language models

This paper proposes a method to enhance single-cell RNA sequencing analysis by jointly training language models on both quantitative scRNA-seq data and targeted biomedical literature, thereby creating interpretable, knowledge-augmented embeddings that improve functionality, disease association, and temporal trajectory insights.

Krissmer, S. M., Menger, J., Rollin, J., Vogel, T. M., Binder, H., Hackenberg, M.2026-03-26💻 bioinformatics

Seqwin: Ultrafast identification of signature sequences in microbial genomes

Seqwin is an open-source framework that automates the discovery of microbial signature sequences by leveraging weighted pan-genome minimizer graphs to efficiently identify highly specific and sensitive targets across tens of thousands of genomes, outperforming existing methods in both speed and accuracy for diagnostic assay design.

Wang, M. X., Kille, B., Nute, M. G., Zhou, S., Stadler, L. B., Treangen, T. J.2026-03-26💻 bioinformatics