Laboratory Equipment for Post-Genomic Studies in Environmental Biology

该奖项支持购买设备，以建立一个在环境研究中高通量处理DNA样本的综合实验室。该实验室的建立将使海洋生物实验室(MBL)和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所(WHOI)的科学家能够获得通常仅限于生物医学或工业化基因组研究中心的高通量能力。将购买的设备包括几个机器人工作站、一个实时定量聚合酶链式反应设备和一个脉冲场凝胶电泳系统。这一新设备将使这两个机构的科学家能够实现对现有高容量DNA测序和微阵列设施的最佳利用。这种机器人设备将完全自动化DNA样本的管理和处理，从而使科学家能够在以前无法想象的水平上对环境中的遗传多样性进行采样。要进行的研究问题涉及基因组进化、生物多样性和环境对基因表达的影响等问题。该设备将能够精确测量基因表达随外界因素(如毒素、其他化学物质)的变化和共生的结果，还将用于测量不可培养的环境种群中的特定DNA序列。新的高通量能力还将直接影响位于马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔的这两个机构的访问和全年科学家、学生和博士后研究员的培训和教育。

This award provides support for purchase of equipment to establish an integrated laboratory for high-throughput processing of DNA samples in environmental research. Establishment of the laboratory will give scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) access to high-throughput capabilities that are typically restricted to biomedical or industrialized genomic research centers. Equipment to be purchased include several robotic workstations, a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction device and a pulsed field gel electrophoresis) system. This new equipment will permit scientists at both institutions to achieve optimum use of an existing high capacity DNA sequencing and microarray facility. This robotic equipment will completely automate management and processing of DNA samples, and thus enable scientists to sample genetic diversity in the environment at a level previously unimaginable. Research questions to be pursued address issues in genome evolution, biodiversity, and environmental influences on gene expression. The equipment will allow precise measurement of changes in gene expression in response to external factors (e.g. toxins, other chemicals) and as a result of symbiosis, and will also be used to measure specific DNA sequences in uncultivable environmental populations. The new high-throughput capabilities will also directly impact the training and education of visiting and year-round scientists, students, and postdoctoral fellows at the two institutions in Woods Hole, MA.