Core Resources : Sequencing Core

Sequencing Core

Four Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing systems

Contact: William Hulme whulme@med.miami.edu

The DNA sequencing facility at the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics combines the latest in next-generation sequencing systems backed by a highly skilled staff. DNA sequencing involves determining the order of the bases — the chemical units of DNA that are represented by the letters A, C, G and T — in a gene or on a chromosome. The sequence helps determine the traits of an organism.

This is a rapidly evolving technology in a fast-moving field. The machines in the HIHG’s sequencing facility can churn through billions of DNA letters at once. The cost of sequencing the entire genome of a human being is shrinking in both time and cost, from from $600 million a decade ago to around $10,000 to $15,000 now. Moreover, the science is moving rapidly toward a stage of what is known as “personalized medicine,” a point at which an individual’s treatment and medicine will be specifically tailored to their genetic code loaded onto a computer hard drive. But even with the technology, the expertise to decipher the genome will have to be developed to keep up with the widespread distribution of the technology in clinics.

The sequencing facility is located in the Biomedical Research Building and is part of the HIHG Center for Genome Technology (CGT). The CGT houses several sequencing platforms that facilitate low, medium and high throughput sequencing.

Our resources include:

• Five Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing systems
• One Illumina Genome Analyzer IIx System with Paired-End Module
• Two Illumina cBot Cluster Generation Systems
• One ABI 3730xl 96-Capillary DNA Analyzer
• Two ABI 3130xl 16-Capillary DNA Analyzer
• One LifeTechnologies Ion Personal Genome Machine sequencer

Sequencing Core