BamBam: Genome Sequence Analysis Tools for Biologists

Massive computational power is needed to analyze the genomic data produced by next-generation sequencing, but extensive computational experience and specific knowledge of algorithms should not be necessary to run genomic analyses or interpret their results. We present BamBam, a package of tools for genome sequence analysis. BamBam contains tools that facilitate summarizing data from BAM alignment files and identifying features such as SNPs, indels, and haplotypes represented in those alignments. It aims to use parameters that can be readily understood, so a researcher can choose appropriate values without needing extensive knowledge of the individual tools and their underlying algorithms. BamBam provides a powerful and convenient framework to analyze genome sequence data contained in BAM files.