scAbsolute

Across many different cancer types, tumour cells exhibit frequent copy number aberrations and as a consequence widely vary in their ploidy. scAbsolute allows for accurate and unbiased measurement of single-cell ploidy and replication status, including whole-genome duplications. It is the first tool to identify different ploidy states based on read density alone. Accurate ploidy estimation and identifying replicating cells are important for many downstream applications, such as detecting genomic variants, copy number calling, quantifying intratumour heterogeneity, and reconstructing tumour evolutionary phylogenies. Overall, scAbsolute is paving the way for a better understanding chromosomal instability in tumour development and progression.