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.
Multiple tool classes successfully ported: pairwise alignment (LASTZ via BRIGx), MLST/BLAST typing (MLSTx), Mash distance trees (MashX), read-level QC (RonaQC), AMR genotyping (Genetrax), and phylogenetics (MashtreeWebX).
Adding Playwright end-to-end test coverage across tools, building a shared @genomicx/ui component library, and improving cross-tool consistency in layout, theming, and output formats.
Is it feasible to pipe output from one WASM tool into another entirely client-side, without a server-side orchestrator?
How many MLST schemes and reference databases can be bundled client-side before download size becomes prohibitive?
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