The role of the genomics core is to support the research projects carried out by the center by providing stateof- the-art transcription profiling capabilities over a wide range of sample types. The center will have access to a facility that has been in continuous operation for the past 8 years. It has benefited from a continuous investment on the part ofthe Baylor Health Care System and has at its disposal state ofthe art genomic analysis instruments and IT infrastructure. Data will be generated on the high-through and cost-effective lllumina BeadArray platform in a strictly controlled laboratory environment to insure the highest data quality and reproducibility. Other transcriptional profiling technologies are also available through this core, such as the NanoString nCounter platform and an ABI SOLID high throughput sequencer. A team of bioinformaticians has been integrated to the core in order to develop and maintain the data management infrastructure that constitutes the backbone of its operation. Bioinformatics and biostatistics support will also be made available to individual investigators through our data mining core. The genomics core at BUR has carried out projects at the interface between the fields of genomics and immunology, and gained significant expertise in profiling: a) blood of patients with a wide range of diseases;b) small cell numbers isolated from tissues or cell cultures;c) blood exposed in vitro to a wide range of innate stimuli. Cutting-edge molecular profiling assays for measurement of microRNA abundance or RNA-sequencing will also be available. The genomics core will work closely with the administrative, clinical sample and data mining cores. Support will be provided to all the projects. More specifically, ex-vivo blood profiles and in vitro immune responsiveness assays will be generated in the context of project 1, 3, 4 and 5. Transcriptional profiles will be generated from isolated cell populations for projects 1 and 2. RNA-seq and microRNA profiling assays will be carried out in the context of project 1.
Systems scale transcriptional profiling has become a mainstay for the study of the human immune system. The expertise involved in the preparation of samples, data acquisition and analysis is considerable and well beyond the capabilities of individual laboratories. Centralization is also driven by: a) the high cost of instrumentation and associated IT infrastructure, and b) higher reproducibility/comparability of the data.
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