Integrated Robotics for Microarray Assembly (IRMA)

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This application requests instrumentation for genome scale assembly of custom cDNA and genomic libraries for microarray transcript profiling analysis and for functional and genetic screens for model organisms. This instrumentation provides an integrated clone assembly system, referred to as Integrated Robotics for Microarray Assembly (IRMA), including: 1) a Robotic Colony Picker for recovering and assembling large libraries of bacterial and yeast clones; 2) an Incubating Growth Chamber for small volume, high density growth of large clone collections in a 96-well format; 3) a Liquid Handling Robot for large scale DNA purification and assembly of PCR amplification reactions; and 4) a High Capacity Thermocycler for PCR amplifications for sequence analysis and microarray target production. The IRMA instrumentation will be housed in the University of Pennsylvania Microarray Core Facility, under the supervision of Core lab personnel, providing an efficient and productive interface with the technical expertise and downstream instrumentation available in the Core Facility for clone management and microarray applications. The eight participating investigators have well-funded research programs investigating genetic regulation of complex developmental processes, including stem cell specification, body plan patterning, and axon guidance, using a variety of model organisms, including Mouse, Zebra fish, Chick, Drosophila, and Arabidopsis. This IRMA instrumentation will be an essential component of these projects, allowing investigators to assemble the large set of clones to pursue genome-scale functional and expression-based screens that are required to define the gene networks that mediate these developmental processes.