Genome Sciences Facility offers services, education opportunities to investigators

The full-service Penn State College of Medicine Genome Sciences Facility provides consultation, instrumentation and services to both Penn State and non-Penn State investigators in genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic studies.

The variety of instrumentation allows for capabilities ranging from highly focused analysis of candidate SNPs and mRNAs to whole genome, exome, epigenome and transcriptome sequencing. Services are also available for a variety of study designs extending from a few laboratory samples to large clinical projects involving hundreds or thousands of samples. The full bioinformatics service is also available for data analysis.

Under the direction of Yuka Imamura, PhD, the Genome Sciences Facility also offers two educational opportunities, through free workshops and paid personal training.

There is a growing need for biomedical researchers to obtain skills in big data. Generally, basic science and clinical researchers either order services from specialists or hire bioinformatics personnel to work in big data genomics. Both bring a significant expense and often do not meet researchers' needs, as there can be a fundamental conceptual gap between biologists and bioinformaticians. The Genome Sciences Facility attempts to fill this gap by providing education to any level of biomedical researcher.

Instrumentation in the Genome Sciences Facility

• Nucleic acid processing and analysis
  • QIAsymphony
  • Bullet Blender
  • Covaris (adaptive focused acoustics ultrasonicator E-series)
  • Bioanalyzer
  • Nanodrop
  • Qubit
  • Access to a TapeStation
  • Access to a Molecular Devices FlexStation 3 UV/Vis/Fluor spectrophotometer
  • QuantStudio 12K Flex system with robotic plate handler
  • QuantStudio 3D digital PCR
  • ABI 3130XL (Sanger sequencing)
  • Fluidigm's C1 Single-Cell Auto Prep System
  • Access to a NanoString nCounter through Penn State University Park
• Microarray
  • Illumina microarrays with iScan system
  • Access to an Affymetrix through Penn State University Park
• Next-Generation Sequencing platforms
  • Illumina MiSeq
  • Illumina HiSeq 2500
  • Illumina NovaSeq 6000
  • LifeTech Ion Proton
  • Access to a PacBio Seque through Penn State University Park
  • BioNano Saphyr

The core has had about 50 publications since 2014. See publication details here.

Learn more about the Genome Sciences Facility.

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