Frequently asked questions
The questions researchers ask us most often – answered plainly.
Working together
Do you ask for authorship on publications?
No. Authorship is never a condition of working with us, and you retain full ownership of your data and results. If a collaboration grows into a genuine scientific contribution and you consider co-authorship appropriate, we are glad to discuss it, but the decision is always yours.
At what stage should we contact you?
As early as possible, ideally before sequencing. Sample sizes, experimental design and batch structure determine what any analysis can find, and no statistical method can rescue a study that was underpowered from the start. That said, we regularly take on projects where the data already exists.
Can you work on a project that has already started?
Yes. We often join projects where an analysis already exists and needs to be extended, revised or checked, including work done by someone else. In those cases we start by reproducing the existing results, so that everything that follows rests on ground we have verified.
How long does an analysis take?
It depends on the data and the question, so we give a realistic estimate after the first conversation rather than a generic figure here. What we can say is that we agree the timeline with you before starting, and tell you promptly if anything in the data changes it.
Data & deliverables
In what format should we send our data?
The data format depends on the experiment. The most common formats we work with are raw sequencing files (FASTQ), aligned files (BAM/CRAM), count matrices, and processed tables. Tell us what you have, and we will tell you what it allows. If you are still choosing a sequencing provider, we can advise on that, too.
What exactly do we receive at the end?
A written report detailing the methodology and findings, alongside high-resolution figures, processed result tables, and all software versions and parameters. In other words, everything needed to understand the results, reuse them, and guarantee the full reproducibility of the analysis.
Who owns the data and the results?
You do entirely. Your data, your results, your intellectual property. We treat everything you send us as confidential and never reuse it for other purposes, and we are happy to sign a confidentiality agreement before you share anything.
How is our data handled and protected?
Data is transferred and stored securely, processed only by the people working on your project, and deleted or returned at the end of the collaboration according to what we agree. If your project involves personal or human-subject data, we work within the requirements that apply to it and discuss the specifics with you before any transfer.
Scope & cost
How much does it cost?
Because every project is designed around a different question, we quote after understanding what it involves. The first conversation carries no cost and no commitment, and you receive a written quote before any work begins.
Our analysis isn’t listed on your site. Can you still help?
Probably, and it is worth asking. The categories on our Analyses page describe common starting points, not the limits of what we do. The projects we find most interesting are usually the ones that don’t fit a category.
Do you work with companies as well as academic groups?
Yes. Academic groups, research institutes and biotech companies all face the same bottleneck between data and interpretation. The process is the same; what changes is the emphasis – publication support in one case, decision-relevant answers in the other.
Still have a question?
Ask us directly – we answer as plainly as we can.