GenomicX is an experiment in compiling established bioinformatics tools to WebAssembly and running them entirely client-side. No servers, no uploads — just the browser.
Most bioinformatics tools require command-line experience, specific operating systems, complex dependency chains, or institutional computing resources. WebAssembly presents an opportunity to deliver these same tools without any installation — directly in the browser.
This project investigates how far that approach can go. Each tool is a case study: what works well when compiled to WASM, what breaks, and what the performance trade-offs are compared to native execution.
All tools are open source and process data locally. No servers are involved.
Read more about the projectEach tool is a case study in porting a different class of bioinformatics analysis to the browser.
Problems we're currently investigating. See the full roadmap for details.
Four tool classes successfully ported: pairwise alignment (LASTZ), sequence typing (minimap2), sketch-based distances (Mash), and read-level QC (samtools + ivar).
How many MLST schemes and reference databases can be bundled client-side before download size becomes prohibitive?
Can AMR gene detection (e.g. AMRFinderPlus) run at acceptable speed compiled to WebAssembly?
Is it feasible to pipe output from one WASM tool into another entirely client-side, without a server-side orchestrator?
GenomicX is open source. Contributions, bug reports, and feedback are welcome.
Port a tool to WebAssembly, fix a bug, or open an issue. All the source is on GitHub.
Browse ReposTry the tools on your own data and let us know what works and what doesn't.
Open an Issue