def get_sample_ids_to_label(samples_file):
    """ Get sample id, label tuples to be highlighted """
    sample_label_tuples = []
    for line in open(samples_file, 'rU'):
        if line[0] == '#':
            continue
        line_pieces = [x.strip() for x in line.split('\t')]
        if len(line_pieces) == 2:
            sample_label_tuples.append(tuple(line_pieces[0:2]))

    return sample_label_tuples