Application for Funding to Acquire Applied Biosystems 3730 DNA Analyzer. The overall objective of this NCRR Shared Instrument Grant application is to obtain funding to purchase a much-needed Applied Biosystems 3730 (48 capillary Genetic Analyzer) for the DNA Sciences Core (DSC) at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. The mission of this institute is to provide excellence and innovation in the care of patients, the training of health professionals and the creation and sharing of health knowledge and in doing so to benefit human health and improve the quality of life. Specifically, the goals set for the present application are to: 1) improve the data quality of the sequencing results, 2) lower the cost of DNA sequencing operations, 3) meet the anticipated increase of DNA sequencing demands, and 4) resume and expand genotyping and SNP analyses. The DSC is a very heavily used facility providing DNA related services throughout the University of Virginia in general and NIH-funded investigators in the School of Medicine in particular. This shared resource facility serves approximately 350 principal investigators of which over 200 are users of DNA sequencing. At the present, the core is operating with a single Applied Biosystems 3100 Genetic Analyzer at near-full capacity workload, which is not sufficient to meet the increasing needs in DNA sequencing. In addition, since the present 3100 sequencer is incapable to run genotyping or other DNA variation assays, investigators have been turned away or put on hold for such research projects. The DNA sequencing service itself has been hampered by the relatively high cost that is inherit to this instrument type. Many investigators are knowledgeable of the new generation 3730/3730xl instrument and are hopeful to soon have access to this instrument at the University of Virginia. With the new instrument, the applications in the DSC such as DNA sequencing, fragment analysis and SNP/mutation detection and analysis will be greatly enhanced. DSC has more than 10 years of operational experience in DNA sequencing and other genetic analyses. It offers a host of comprehensive analysis including bioinformatics for genome research throughout the School of Medicine and the University of Virginia. Our expertise in consultation, the ability to integrate the DNA sequencing data with other genetic information and the value-added packaging of multiple analyses makes in-house DNA sequencing service still a preferred option for the investigators. However, to maintain this status, we need to keep abreast with the new technology. With this new 3730, our mission as a medium to high-throughput facility will be fulfilled in the following three important fronts: 1) DNA sequencing, 2) Genotyping including microsatilite and SNP analyses with Applied Biosystems SpaPshot , and 3) higher throughput SPN screening with Applied Biosystems oligo48-plex SNPlex analysis. ? ? ?
