Genomics and Imaging Facilities Core

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GENOMICS AND IMAGING FACILITIES CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The CEHS Genomics and Imaging Facilities Core (GIFC) provides CEHS members with a broad set of instrumentation, training and expertise to address environmental health using systems biology approaches. This Core provides access to massively parallel sequencing, oligonucleotide arrays, automated fluidics, microscopy and bioinformatics and IT support. Over the previous funding period, this Core has expanded significantly with over $3 million in additional equipment and a significant increase in space allocation. These expansions include the acquisition of several Illumina sequencers and significant investments in bioinformatics and bioIT. The GIFC is comprised of the CEHS Imaging Facility, overseen by Dr. Robert Croy and the MIT BioMicro Center, a joint institutional shared resource that provides the genomics and bioinformatics resources in the core, overseen by Dr. Stuart Levine. The BioMicro Center is the central genomics and bioinformatics technology resource at MIT and it is jointly supported by the CEHS, the Departments of Biological Engineering and Biology, and the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. While over half of all CEHS members have utilized the GIFC in the current funding period, the CEHS only provides 5% of the support for the Facilities Core, and members have benefitted extensively from equipment donated from a broad variety of sources including charitable and institutional support. The GIFC activities can be divided into four major areas of technology for which the core provides both expertise and training. Genomics assays, including Affymetrix and Agilent microarrays, Illumina and Pacific Biosciences sequencing and library construction, offer CEHS members the assay a broad variety of questions from how cells respond to environmental challenges to how the environment impacts the microbiome. High- throughput assays, including qPCR, plate readers and automated liquid handling allow CEHS members to significantly increase sample throughput. Microscopy, including flow-cytometry and the Cellomics Arrayscan, provide assays of changes in protein expression and localization, and bioinformatics and bioIT provide both infrastructure as well as assistance in the analyses of these large datasets. Services are offered as walkup services where the investigator will directly operate the instrument following training, fee-for-service services, where samples are processed or analyzed for the user on highly specialized equipment by the GIFC staff and instruments that can be operated in either way.