Methods and processes for non-invasive assessment of genetic variations

1. A method for identifying a probability of a presence or absence of a segmental chromosomal aberration or an aneuploidy or both comprising:

(a) obtaining sequence reads from a cell-free sample nucleic acid;

(b) mapping the sequence reads obtained in (a) to a known genome, which known genome has been divided into genomic sections;

(c) counting the mapped sequence reads within the genomic sections;

(d) providing a normalization of the counted mapped sequence reads in (c) based on a sliding window normalization; and

(e) providing an outcome identifying a probability of the presence or absence of a segmental chromosomal aberration or an aneuploidy or both from the normalization in (d).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein (d) comprises:

(i) generating a sample normalized count profile;

(ii) removing noisy genomic sections;

(iii) identifying genomic sections that significantly deviate from the mean elevation;

(iv) removing solitary data points identified in (iii);

(v) grouping neighboring data points deviating in the same direction; and

(vi) characterizing aberration elevations and edges.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein (v) is performed using a predefined gap tolerance.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein characterizing aberration elevations and edges comprises the use of integrals over the suspected aberration and its immediate surroundings.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein (vi) comprises:

(1) performing linear regression on selected genomic sections on one side of the candidate aberration;

(2) performing linear regression on selected genomic sections on the other side of the candidate aberration;

(3) determining the mean elevation within the candidate aberration and/or the slope of the line segment connecting two linear regression lines; and

(4) determining the difference between the intercepts of two linear regression lines, combined with the mean elevation within the aberration,

wherein, performing (1) to (4) yields the width of the aberration.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein (1) to (4) are repeated about 1 to about 100 times.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein (1) to (4) are repeated about 1 to about 10 times.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell-free sample nucleic acid is isolated from blood, serum, or plasma obtained from a test subject.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the test subject is a pregnant female.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the segmental chromosomal aberration is a fetal segmental chromosomal aberration and the aneuploidy is a fetal aneuploidy.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the fetal aneuploidy is a chromosome trisomy chosen from a chromosome 13 trisomy, a chromosome 18 trisomy, or a chromosome 21 trisomy.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein (a) comprises sequencing the cell-free sample nucleic acid by a sequencing process, thereby generating the sequence reads.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sequencing process is a massively parallel sequencing process.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein (b), (c), (d), and/or (e) are implemented by a computer.