An Affymetrix GeneChip Instrument System

描述（由申请人提供）：表达阵列中心（CEA）是华盛顿大学的研究资源中心，为华盛顿大学和大西雅图研究社区提供微阵列服务。 自成立以来，CEA已经处理了4000多个微阵列，并为数十个实验室提供了基于微阵列的实验，否则这些实验室无法进行此类实验。在这份提案中，我们要求资金来升级我们的Affysset基因芯片仪器系统。该系统升级将允许华盛顿大学的研究人员使用Affytron 2.0芯片，该芯片具有更小的特征尺寸（11 fm），每个芯片包含约50，000个特征。这些新的芯片可以通过一次杂交来分析整个基因组。此外，所有未来的Affyscore基因芯片都将使用新的特征尺寸。 如果没有新的仪器系统，华盛顿大学的研究人员将无法利用Affyphon平台的新发展。这将是一个很大的研究障碍，因为华盛顿大学的许多实验室已经有了使用AffysseGeneChips的历史，改变到不同的平台将花费宝贵的时间，并将使比较已经完成的数据集变得困难，如果不是不可能的话。仪器系统升级也将降低研究人员的微阵列实验成本，因为每个功能的成本将更低，因为其他升级组件（芯片自动加载器和流体站升级）将允许CEA的操作效率更高。总之，新的仪器系统是必要的，以确保高质量的微阵列研究继续在华盛顿大学。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Center for Expression Arrays (CEA) is a University of Washington research resource center that provides microarray services to the University of Washington and greater Seattle research communities. Since its inception, the CEA has processed over 4000 microarrays and has made microarray-based experiments available to dozens of labs that otherwise could not have afforded such experiments. In this proposal, we are requesting funds to upgrade our Affymetrix GeneChip Instrument System. This system upgrade will allow UW researchers to use Affymetrix 2.0 chips, which have a reduced feature size (11 fm) and contain approximately 50,000 features per chip. These new chips allow whole genomes to be assayed with a single hybridization. In addition, all future Affymetrix GeneChips will use the new feature size. Without the new instrument system, UW researchers will be unable to take advantage of new developments in the Affymetrix platform. This would be a great hindrance to research as many labs at the UW already have a history of using Affymetrix GeneChips and changing to a different platform would cost valuable time and would render comparisons to already completed datasets difficult, if not impossible. The Instrument System upgrade also will reduce the costs of microarray experiments to researchers, both because the cost on a per feature basis will be less and because the other upgrade components (chip autoloader and fluidics station upgrades) will allow greater efficiency in operation of the CEA. In sum, the new Instrument System is necessary to ensure that high quality microarray research continues at the University of Washington.