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Viral Metagenomics

Detection of viruses in shotgun sequencing data

Viral metagenomics can extend standard microbial analysis of shotgun sequencing data to detect viruses that are often missed in routine workflows. Checking your data for viral content can uncover biological insights, infections, contamination, or meaningful signals that affect interpretation and downstream decisions. Virome analyses adds confidence to your results, supports biosafety and regulatory needs, and can reveal unexpected findings without requiring new experiments.

Pricing starts at only €25 per sample. Get in touch:

Details

This service is for the FASTQ data processing, QC reports, and minimal biological or statistical interpretation.

 

Optional add-ons such as figure preparation, or data upload to public repositories, are available on request.

Project Setup
• Includes project discussions and data transfers

Analysis per Sample
• Suitable for 1 to >100 samples

NCBI Submission
• FASTQ FTP upload to generate BioProject and Accession IDs

Figures & Statistics
• Composition, diversity, statistical test, and differential abundance

Video Discussions – n=3
• Kick-off, update, and wrap-up calls

Turnaround Time – 2–3 weeks
• Queue and project size dependent

Delivery – Dropbox / FileZilla
• Data retained for 30 days

Deliverables

All files are shared via secure, GDPR-compliant data transfers.

 

Data upload and release will be organised via Dropbox or Filezilla.

Compute resources are provided by an Irish-based cloud computing provider, CloudCIX

  • Quality control reports

    • Per-sample QC reports for raw and cleaned reads (FastQC, fastp)

  • Processed sequencing data

    • Adapter-trimmed and quality-filtered reads used for downstream analysis

  • Viral genome assemblies

    • Contigs, scaffolds, and associated assembly quality metrics

  • Taxonomic classification outputs

    • Per-sample viral profiles with interactive visualisations (Krona) and classification reports

  • Reproducibility package

    • Pipeline reports, parameters, software versions, and execution logs

Example Output

This GitHub repository contains a subset of outputs from a viral metagenome analysis of two lamb faecal (ruminant) samples, each sequenced to ~30M paired-end (150 bp) reads on an Illumina platform, without viral enrichment.

Requirements

Pipelines can be run on (i) newly generated datasets, (ii) publicly available metagenomes, or (iii) a combination of both, enabling comparative analyses across studies and environments.

This flexibility allows integration of novel samples with existing resources for broader context and reproducibility.

Input Format
• Paired- or single-end FASTQ (gzipped)

Read Length
• 50–150 bp

Depth
• ≥ 3 Mn reads

Optional Preprocessing
• Read repair – BBTools

Accepted Platforms
• Illumina, MGI, Element Biosciences, Ultima Genomics

Technical

All analyses are executed within isolated Conda environments, ensuring full reproducibility and dependency control across runs.

Each tool and database version is tracked, guaranteeing consistent results between projects and over time.

nf-core/viralmetagenome
• Revision 1.1.1 (https://nf-co.re/viralmetagenome/1.1.1)

Workflow

Client data are transferred securely to BioFigR via Dropbox/Filezilla and processed on CloudCIX infrastructure using rsync. All transfers occur within GDPR-compliant environments, with optional deposition to NCBI via FTP only upon client approval. No data are shared or stored beyond the agreed workflow stages.

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Contact BioFigR

The streamlined, reproducible, nf-core/viralmetagenome pipelines ensure data integrity from upload to analysis. BioFigR provides transparent, compliant handling at every stage—so clients can focus on results, not logistics.

Contact BioFigR with the number of samples and reads per sample to receive a quotation, or to discuss project requirements.

Supplementary Info

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