Genomics & High Throughput Sequencing

The Genomics and High Throughput Sequencing research platform provides processing of DNA and RNA utilising Long Read sequencing technologies to better understand genetics across wide-ranging topics from exploring neurodegenerative and rare disease to cancer genomics, transcriptomics, genome assembly and more. 

The core facility aims to provide support for every stage of your sequencing pipeline and research projects from design to analysis. The team currently employ a number of platforms to meet research goals, with more launching in 2028.

Current Service Offering

Currently we are using platforms from the following providers within the team:

Quality Control

The first and crucial step of your project pipeline. Our facility house Qubit fluorometers, Agilent Femto Pulse for HMW fragment analysis, Megaruptor3 for fragmentation of HMW samples, Tapestation 4200 and Nanodrop. More information can be found below:

• Agilent Femto Pulse
• Megaruptor 3
• Agilent Tapestation 4200
• Qubit Fluorometer

Pacific Biosciences

The team utilises PacBio’s Revio system, a new platform optimised with increased compute power and ability to run 4 flow cells simultaneously over 24 hours. This and the new 25M SMRTcells utilised by Revio provide higher compute and yields, outcompeting the Sequel IIe. 

Read more about the Revio on the PacBio website

The main applications are:

• Whole Genome Sequencing (further information)
• Targeted Sequencing (further information)
• Complex Populations (further information)
• RNA Sequencing (further information)
• Epigenetics (further information)

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

PromethION is a scalable long-read sequencing platform from Oxford Nanopore Technologies using nanopore sequencing with real-time base calling. Up to 24 flow cells can be run independently, and dependent on the sample and library types a single flow cell can generate up to 200Gb of data. Nanopore technology has no limitation on  read length, so libraries can be designed to have short or ultra long read lengths. Uniquely, Nanopore technology can be used to enrich for target regions without PCR or probes. The data generated can also be used for methylation basecalling and epigenomic studies. 

Read more about the PromethION, on the Oxford Nanopore website

The main applications are:

• Whole Genome Sequencing (further information)
• RNA Sequencing (further information)

Information on other applications can be found here.

Bionano Genomics

An optical genome mapping system that uses fluorescently labelled genome regions to explore long-range genome mapping from isolated HMW DNA samples. The system is capable of analysing long molecules from 100,000 bp to megabase pairs.

Read more about the Bionano Saphyr, on the Bionano website

The main applications are:

• High-resolution physical genome mapping
• Improve contiguity of sequence assemblies
• Identify structural variation

Further information can be found here.

Applied Biosystems 3730XL

Provides high throughput, scalable, capillary electrophoresis and sanger sequencing technology for genetic analysis.

The 3730xl DNA Analyzer provides high-quality data from a wide array of applications. In addition to being ideal for high-throughput sequencing, the analyzer’s optimized application assays, instrument, and analysis software also provide a complete solution for genotyping and resequencing. Use this analyzer for DNA fragment analysis applications such as microsatellites, AFLP, and SNP analysis, mutation detection, and traditional DNA sequencing. 

Read more about the AB3730XL on the Thermo Fisher website

The main applications are:

• Fragment analysis

Costs

Please contact us directly for a bespoke quote.

Expansion of the core facility at Grays Inn Road

As we progress with the set up of the core facility in the new Grays Inn Road site in 2028, more services will be added to the core facility. We hope in future to offer the following services:

• DNA Extractions
• RNA Extractions
• Bioinformatics support
• ABI 3730 Sanger Sequencing