Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of an Illumina NextSeq 2000 Sequencing Instrument

该合同支持收购Illumina NexSeq 2000下一代测序系统，该系统将安装在波士顿大学设计、自动化、制造和工艺（DAMP）实验室。DAMP实验室是一个自动化的生物实验室，由8个液体处理机器人组成，可以在微小的液体井中同时进行数千个实验。这些机器人在将液体从一个地方转移到另一个地方的工作上比人类做得更好更快。在大流行期间，DAMP实验室进行了数千次COVID测试，现在其仪器用于创建和研究新的分子工具。Illumina测序仪将帮助研究人员研究这些新分子工具的基因组序列。序列的微小变化可能导致性能的巨大变化。下一代测序具有无与伦比的能力，可以看到哪些变化增强或减弱了功能。这种新仪器将有助于支持设计更好的药物和新的诊断和生物传感器。波士顿大学的潮湿实验室是一个核心设施，为波士顿大学、波士顿地区的学术界和工业界提供服务，并有潜力通过我们完全基于云的自动化实验室系统为全国的研究人员提供服务。获得下一代测序技术将在生物技术和生物工程的融合领域开启新的见解。Illumina NexSeq 2000的加入将影响波士顿大学的三个主要研究领域：类器官分析、环境和水监测、生物传感和诊断。在疫情期间，波士顿大学建立了一个自动化分子生物学实验室，现在是潮湿实验室的一部分，专注于加速合成生物学研究。将此工具添加到现有的自动化套件中，将大大增加我们可以为用户提供的服务。这种独特的基于云的实验室已经为实验室和研究人员提供了许多复杂的湿生物协议，这些实验室和研究人员没有内部资源或专业知识来执行这些协议，或者根本没有湿实验室。该仪器的添加将为这些相同的群体打开下一代测序（NGS）的大门。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports the acquisition of an Illumina NexSeq 2000 next generation sequencing system to be housed at the Design, Automation, Manufacturing, and Process (DAMP) Laboratory at Boston University. The DAMP Lab is an automated biology laboratory comprised of eight liquid handling robots that can run thousands of experiments at a time in tiny wells of liquid. These robots do a much better and faster job of transferring liquids from place to place than humans can. The DAMP Lab performed thousands of COVID tests during the pandemic, and now its instruments are used to create and study new molecular tools. The Illumina sequencer will help researchers study the genomic sequences of these new molecular tools. Small changes in the sequence can lead to big changes in performance. Next generation sequencing has an unparalleled ability to see which changes enhance or diminish function. This new instrument will help support the design of better drugs and new diagnostics and biosensors. The DAMP Lab at Boston University is a Core Facility that serves BU, Boston area academics and industry, and has the potential to serve researchers across the nation through our completely cloud based automated laboratory system. Access to next generation sequencing technology will unlock new insights across the convergent areas of biotechnology and bioengineering. Addition of the Illumina NexSeq 2000 will impact three major areas of research at BU: Organoid Profiling, Environmental and Water Monitoring, and Biosensing and Diagnostics. Over the pandemic, Boston University built an automated molecular biology laboratory, now part of the DAMP Lab, that is focused on accelerating synthetic biology research. Addition of this instrument to the existing suite of automation will dramatically increase the services we can offer users. This unique cloud-based laboratory has already made many sophisticated wet biological protocols accessible to laboratories and researchers who don’t have the in-house resources or expertise to perform them – or who might not have a wet laboratory at all. Addition of this instrument will open next generation sequencing (NGS) to these same groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.