Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41169153›Full record

ArticleBioinformatics (Oxford, England)2025

SPARKI: a tool for the statistical analysis of pathogen identification results.

Jacqueline M Boccacino, Martin Del Castillo Velasco-Herrera, Mathew A Beale, Jamie Billington, Ian Vermes, Sofia Obolenski, Kim Wong, Laura Torrens, Sarah Moody, Sandra Perdomo and 5 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bioinformatics (Oxford, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Genome and drug resistance analysis ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors.

Jacqueline M BoccacinoCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-6813-5217
Martin Del Castillo Velasco-HerreraCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-5956-0211
Mathew A BealeParasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-4740-3187
Jamie BillingtonCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
Ian VermesCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
Sofia ObolenskiCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-6709-7332
Kim WongCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-0984-1477
Laura TorrensGenomic Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), Lyon, 69366, France.
Sarah MoodyCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
Sandra PerdomoGenomic Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), Lyon, 69366, France.ORCID 0000-0001-7740-8141
Saamin CheemaCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-5297-2042
Bailey FrancisCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
Victoria OffordCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
Adam P ButlerCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.
David J AdamsCancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-9490-0306

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/V000292/1Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust 206194World Health Organization 001
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

motivationMany pathogen identification and microbiome analysis tools have been developed in recent years, with Kraken 2 being one of the most popular. While tools downstream of Kraken 2 can assist in the interpretation of its outputs, a statistical framework to assess the likelihood that a taxon/organism is present in a single sample alongside an automated end-to-end analysis pipeline has not yet been fully implemented.

resultsHere, we introduce SPARKI, an R package that performs statistical analysis of Kraken 2 outputs and aids in the identification of pathogens present in next-generation sequencing samples. SPARKI adds to the field by bringing a probabilistic view to Kraken 2 data, serving as a discovery tool and complementing other methods such as KrakenTools, Bracken, and Pavian. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: SPARKI code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/team113sanger/sparki. SPARKI is also part of an end-to-end pathogen identification pipeline, sparki-nf, which is available at https://github.com/team113sanger/sparki-nf. An additional pipeline for further exploration and validation of SPARKI results is also available at https://github.com/team113sanger/map-to-genome.

Indexed as

Computational BiologySoftwareHigh-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingMicrobiota

Identifiers

PMID41169153
PMCPMC12619640

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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 OpenQuestion graph.