Sequencing
The Genome Sciences Centre sequencing platform is a high-throughput large-scale DNA analysis facility that has been designed to maximize capacity while maintaining efficiency, scalability and flexibility. The platform is one of the largest platforms of its type in Canada and is well recognized internationally.
Current production scale capabilities of the capillary based platform include fosmid end sequencing, PCR amplicon sequencing, plasmid, and BAC end sequencing. We have two Applied Biosytems 3730xls yielding a capacity of 7680 lanes per week, or approx 6 million Q20 bases per week. The GSC sequencing platform prides itself on its flexibility and molecular biology enabling PCR, BAC, fosmid and plasmid DNA preps and several optimized reaction chemistries, allowing us to provide high-quality, high-yield, consistent data generation.
More information on the Illumina Platform.
Through our sequencing validation team we offer several high quality, high throughput targeted sequencing services. We can perform verification studies for SNVs, small in-dels and structural variants including fusions. This service encompasses PCR primer design all the way through to variant reporting. We can also provide a service for validation or extension studies on gene sets, which is done via an amplicon based approach or a targeted capture design. We have also recently implemented a TCR/BCR profiling service from RNA. We can now validate targeted methylation sites via bisulfite sequencing and can do quantitative PCR on a small scale. The platform also has expertise in vector construction and library construction and has produced numerous vector derivatives and genomic libraries in support of the above activities.
The sequencing lab is supported by comprehensive QA/QC in both the laboratory and bioinformatic pipelines. A maintenance and calibration dedicated technician is an integral part of the team. Our in house LIMS enables comprehensive sample and reagent tracking. We also have dedicated technical development personnel and a systems support team. In addition, we have PhD level engineering for in house pipeline improvements.
The platform provides access to multiple projects of varying size and location from local to worldwide, more than 2000 capillary and 50,000 Illumina libraries have been sequenced since 2003. These projects cover a large variety of species as well as human disease focused resequencing, in particular cancer. The sequencing platform is continuously utilized for the production of sequence data on several important NCI, TCGA, TFRI, Genome British Columbia, and Genome Canada projects.
Our sequencing accomplishments can be viewed in our Publications.
