XenoMix: Estimating mouse content from DNA methylation data of Patient-Derived Xenograft models.

XenoMix accurately quantifies mouse DNA contamination in PDX DNA methylation data with correlation coefficients above 0.99.

• Why it matters: Quantifying mouse DNA contamination in PDX models is challenging but essential for accurate epigenetic analysis and downstream research.
• What they did: The authors developed XenoMix, a lightweight R tool that exploits high genome homology to detect and measure mouse DNA signals in human PDX methylation microarray data, validated with ground truth mixtures.
• The result: XenoMix reveals variable mouse contamination levels in PDX samples, enabling improved quality control and adjustment for contamination as a confounder in subsequent analyses.