NERC Environmental Omics Facility (NEOF)

新的“组学”技术通过允许科学家读取基因组（基因组学）和测量活细胞和生物体内的蛋白质（蛋白质组学）或其他化学物质（代谢组学）的数量，已经改变了生物学。可以从环境中收集微量的DNA（环境DNA， eDNA）来测量生物多样性和监测土壤、河流和海洋的健康状况。这为了解自然环境中不同个体和物种的多样性，它们的进化，以及允许它们在环境中生存的不同特征和形态的多样性创造了一个巨大的机会。考虑到生物多样性从地球上消失的速度，以及它在使物种和生态系统应对气候变化并生存下来方面发挥的核心作用，了解生物多样性比以往任何时候都更加紧迫。希望在研究中使用基因组学技术的科学家面临着重大障碍：所需的设备耗资数百万英镑，很少有实验室能负担得起；应用这些技术的专门知识是罕见的，特别是对来自自然环境的物种；而且，环境科学界缺乏利用基因组学技术设计研究并随后分析结果数据的专业技能。为了克服这些障碍，并为科学家提供利用组学解决研究问题所需的工具和技能，我们将提供NERC环境组学设施（NEOF）。NEOF将成为英国独特的能力，拥有专业知识和设备来培训科学家在经济方法，帮助他们了解技术的潜力和设计研究使用它，提供方法来测试冒险的想法，并支持更大规模的NERC研究项目。NEOF将由一组世界领先的科学家管理，他们能够涵盖广泛的组学方法，并具有将这些方法应用于环境科学问题的经验。我们将利用这些专业知识来培训处于早期阶段的科学家，并在他们职业生涯的任何阶段提高科学家的技能。我们将授权NERC的科学家社区参与新技术和新方法，然后用它们来解决以前在环境科学中无法回答的组学问题。我们还拥有广泛的设备和空间，我们将使用这些设备和空间来支持NERC科学家的基因组分析。NEOF将为NERC提供极好的价值。我们能够提供2000万英镑的现有设备和100万英镑的先前翻新，因此NERC不需要为我们购买这些设备。我们的大学将为这一提议提供进一步的翻新、空间和支持。我们的团队拥有10年的经验，为NERC提供高效的设施，并制定了一系列流程，以确保项目得到快速管理并符合预算。正因为如此，我们将能够迅速投入使用，并立即向NERC的科学家提供这一设施。

New 'omic' technologies have transformed biology by allowing scientists to read genomes (genomics) and to measure the amount of proteins (proteomics) or other chemicals (metabolomics) within living cells and organisms. Tiny amounts of DNA can be collected from the environment (environmental DNA, eDNA) to measure biodiversity and monitor the health of our soils, rivers and seas. This creates a tremendous opportunity to understand the diversity of different individuals and species within the natural environment, their evolution, and the diversity of different characters and forms that allow them to live within their environment. Understanding biodiversity is more pressing than ever, given the rate at which it is being lost from the planet and the central role that it plays in allowing species and ecosystems to respond to, and survive, climate change.Scientists wanting to use omic technologies in their research face significant hurdles: the equipment required costs millions of pounds and few labs can afford it; the expertise to apply these techniques is rare, particularly to species from the natural environment; and there is a lack of the specialist skills present within the environmental science community to design studies using omic technology and to then analyse the resulting data. To overcome these hurdles and equip scientists with the tools and skills they need to address their research questions using omics, we will provide the NERC Environmental Omics Facility (NEOF). NEOF will be a unique capability within the UK that has the expertise and equipment to train scientists in omic methods, help them to understand the potential of the technology and design studies to use it, provide the means to test adventurous ideas, and to support larger-scale NERC research projects. NEOF will be run by a team of scientists who are world-leading experts and are able to cover a broad range of omics methods, with experience of applying these to questions in environmental sciences. We will use this expertise to train early-stage scientists and to upskill scientists at any stage of their career. We will empower the community of NERC scientists to engage with new technologies and approaches and to then use them to address questions using omics that were previously impossible to answer in environmental science. We also have extensive equipment and space that we will use to support omic analysis for NERC scientists. NEOF will be excellent value for NERC. We are able to provide £20m of existing equipment and >£2m of previous refurbishment so that NERC does not need to buy this for us. Our Universities will provide further refurbishment, space and support towards this proposal. Our team has >10 years' experience of delivering a highly effective facility to NERC, with a host of processes in place to ensure that projects are managed quickly and to budget. Because of this, we will be able to hit the ground running and provide this facility immediately to NERC scientists.