Service and Collaboration: Enhancing Project Potential at the Stowers Institute Molecular Biology Facility

CF-24 The Stowers Institute for Medical Research houses 24 independent research programs supported by 13 independent core facilities. The Molecular Biology Facility combines four teams in a cutting-edge laboratory dedicated exclusively to supporting internal research by providing access to the latest technology and high quality service. The Sequencing Team offers routine Sanger sequencing, 96-well plasmid preps followed by high throughput sequencing, riboprobe synthesis and pathogen testing. Sanger resequencing for finding mutations is also available.An Illumina Genome Analyzer is utilized for next generation sequencing projects.Current next gen sequencing applications include whole genome resequencing and SNP discovery, RNA-seq, ChIP-Seq and microRNA sequencing. Microarray works with commercially available Affymetrix and Agilent platforms, and spotted arrays made in-house. Experiments include ChIP-chip, array CGH, and expression applications.Microarray also generates ChIP-seq, RNA-seq and microRNA libraries for next gen sequencing applications. The Mutagenesis and Libraries Team's site-directed mutagenesis service is one of our most popular and unique services. Investigators provide the team with a glycerol stock, sequence information and the desired changes (point mutations, insertions, deletions). The team designs the primers, does the mutagenesis reactions and returns positive clones. Currently the team is developing a recombineering service for larger construct designs, including BACs.The group manages and distributes clones from over 27 vector and clone collections for the Institute. The qPCR, Robotics and Tech Development Team collaborates with many of the Institute's PI labs and core facilities.qPCR instrumentsinclude an ABI 7500 for 96-well qPCR and an ABI 7900 with automatic loader for running 384-well plates and Taqman Low Density Arrays (TLDA cards).The team also collaborates with investigators on custom robotic projects using a liquid handling robot (Biomek FX and CAS-4200) and colony manipulation robots (Singer RoTor and Qpix).Most projects require tech development, such as the recent development of high throughput aneuploidy screens for one of the Institute's PI labs.