Bioinformatic Sweeties: a unified portal for characterizing human proteins and their variants

Abstract

Next-generation sequencing techniques provide an unprecedented characterisation of human Variants of Unknown Significance (VUS). Single-residue variations are collected in public databases and associated to diseases and phenotypes. However, for detailing at molecular level mechanisms involved in the onset of diseases, variants need structural and functional annotation. Here we propose a new portal called Bioinformatic Sweeties, collecting resources ranging from databases for human protein annotation to computational methods for predicting impact of variants. The tools, included in the portal, allow computing different protein properties, ranging from solvent accessible surface to stability and interactions and do not require login or installation. The portal, speeding up the variant characterisation process, is available at: https://bioinformaticsweeties.biocomp.unibo.it