Torchlex: a method for real-time demultiplexing of barcoded Oxford Nanopore reads
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Current state-of-the-art Oxford Nanopore barcode demultiplexing tools (such as guppy) that operate directly on the DNA base-calls are computationally expensive. The lagging of the demultiplexing algorithms on the stream of base-called DNA reads that are generated by the ONT device can significantly influence the real-time monitoring and deciding capacity about the quality and quantity of the reads per DNA sample. In order to reduce the computational complexity of the demultiplexing process and ensure more real-time data processing, it was our goal to develop demultiplexing system that would keep up with the most efficient basecalling algorithm running on GridION’s GPU. We developed Torchlex, a method for real-time demultiplexing of custom barcoded reads compatible with Oxford Nanopore Technologies. The proposed method managed to significantly reduce the computational complexity of the demultiplexing, while preserving the quality of classification compared to the competing methods.