This proposal requests funding for an ARC-GT sequencer from GTbioseq, the ARC-GT reseller for the manufacturer Dover Motion, Inc, to be placed in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. This new instrument will have a significant impact on in situ RNA expression research of our NIH-funded projects. The funded projects' objectives include cancer pathology, genetic basis of vertebrate development, medical diagnostics, brain connectomics/transcriptomics, heart development and failure, mRNA transport and localization, cell differentiation, microRNA, microbiome, chromosome inheritance, epigenetics, organogenesis, and oncobiology. The new device will greatly enhance our ability to perform Fluorescent in situ sequencing (FISSEQ) by reducing image and reagent delivery times, more than double the sample throughput, increase the signal to noise, and because it is fully automated remove the person-to-person variability and tedious low-throughput method of manual FISSEQ. This will make a powerful in situ transcriptomics approach a routine technique for many researchers.
To discover mechanisms and treatments for cancer, heart and organ failure, and inheritable diseases, we must investigate their underlying genetic and transcriptional factors. The technology to sequence the human genome and transcriptome is rapidly advancing. This application requests funding for a state-of-the-art FISSEQ sequencer that will significantly improve the quality of data acquired, and will produce many new avenues of medical diagnostics and research.
