Refrigerated tabletop centrifuge with microplatz capacity for use in DNA sequencing and other molecular genetic studies

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Our research uses genetic techniques to answer a variety of questions regarding animal evolution, development, and reproduction.  For example, we investigate: 1) the evolutionary relationships and genetic population structure of a number of North American freshwater fishes; 2) the roles that connexins, the constituent proteins of gap junctions, play in embryonic development and tissue maintenance; and 3) development and reproduction in mosquitoes and other pest insects.  Many of the techniques we use involve extensive DNA sequencing.  Although DNA sequencing used to be very labour-intensive, the process is now largely automated and sequencing of a large number of samples in a short period of time is possible.  Last year, researchers in the Departments of Botany, Microbiology, and Zoology at the University of Manitoba received an NSERC Research Tools and Instruments grant to purchase an automated sequencer.  The current proposal seeks funding for a refrigerated centrifuge that would allow us to prepare a large number of samples for sequencing.  A centrifuge that can spin 96-well plates will allow us to take full advantage of the high-throughput capabilities of the new automated sequencer.