Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42401968›Full record

ArticleGenome medicine2026

RankVar: machine learning-based variant ranking and reinterpretation for rare genetic diseases.

Yuan Zhang, Mian Umair Ahsan, Peng Wang, Xiaoqi Lin, Ian M Campbell, Cong Liu, Wendy K Chung, Chunhua Weng, Kai Wang

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Article in Genome medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Yuan ZhangRaymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Mian Umair AhsanRaymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Peng WangRaymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Xiaoqi LinDepartment of Systems Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
Ian M CampbellDepartment of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Cong LiuDepartment of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Wendy K ChungDepartment of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Chunhua WengDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
Kai WangRaymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. wangk@chop.edu.

Funding

Fair Phenotype Annotation and Genomic ReinterpretationR01HG013031 · NHGRI · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI Wendy K Chung, CHUNHUA WENG · 2023 to 2026
$3.5M
NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG013031NIH HHS HG013031
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPrior biological knowledge and phenotype information can help identify disease genes from whole genome/exome sequencing studies, but how best to incorporate external knowledge with variant data remains challenging. We developed a machine learning algorithm called RankVar to prioritize causative variants for rare diseases, based on clinical notes and genome/exome sequencing profiles.

methodsRankVar uses a random forest classifier trained on ~ 1 million variants from the 1000 Genomes Project with spiked-in pathogenic variants. For testing, we compiled sequencing data and phenotype information from several independent datasets: 260 subjects from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) with positive genetic diagnosis of various Mendelian diseases, 135 subjects from Birth Defects Biorepository (BDB), as well as 356 and 97 subjects with candidate causal variants for autism spectrum disorders from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) and the Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK), respectively.

resultsRankVar achieves a top 10 variant accuracy of 90.0%, 81.5%, 46.1%, and 76.3% for CHOP, BDB, SSC, and SPARK, respectively, with improved performance over existing approaches. Notably, RankVar successfully identified X-linked and Y-linked disease-causal variants, such as KDM6A (p.N915Kfs5*) and SRY (p.W98X), as the top candidate variants. Moreover, we evaluated RankVar for genomic reinterpretation of 130 unsolved CHOP cases with hearing loss and successfully identified 61 candidate causal variants after manual review.

conclusionsIn summary, RankVar performed favorably relative to existing methods in our evaluation, accommodated different genetic models and X/Y chromosome variants, and may provide a useful framework for prioritizing variants in monogenic or oligogenic diseases. We anticipate that RankVar may aid in primary genetic diagnosis, genome reinterpretation of previously unsolved cases, and the discovery of novel disease genes.

Indexed as

Genetic Diseases, InbornGenetic VariationMachine LearningRare DiseasesAlgorithmsExome SequencingGenetic Predisposition to DiseaseHumansPhenotypeMachine learningRare genetic diseaseVariant prioritization

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.