GENOMICS SHARED RESOURCE

The AECC DMA Sequencing Shared Resource was established in 1992 and has evolved considerably since then and, in particular, over the last funding period, to meet the evolving scientific needs of AECC members and programs. The new name of this facility, Genomics Shared Resource, reflects this expansion of services and technologies. The facility now offers, in addition to DMA sequencing, fragment analysis, dHPLC for SNP/mutation discovery, Pyrosequencing SNP typing, pyrosequencing quantitative CpG methylation, and Taqman SNP typing. Real-time PCR is now provided as well. At the time of the last CCSG review, this Facility provided Affymetrix services, and there was a separate cDNA printing facility. With the further development of microarray technologies, there has been a shift of emphasis to commercially available microarrays. To meet the needs for epigenetic studies, services were contracted with NimbleGen Direct to perform, on their site, gene expression, CGH, chromatin immunoprecipitation on microarrays (ChlP-chip), and a novel genome-wide cytosine methylation assay developed at AECC. NimbleGen services are managed by this facility. Within the context of this application all of the microarray services (Affymetrix, NimbleGen and in-house printing) have now been consolidated in this shared resource to provide a single source of intellectual guidance to users and enhance cost-effectiveness. The facility provides access to three computer workstations with design and analysis software to support a number of the services. Over the past five years the capacity of the facility has been increased so that turnaround time has been substantially decreased and fees to users have been decreased.