Editing BioMicroCenter:FAQ (section)

== DEFINITIONS ==
=== CORE LABS ===
The BioMicro Center is NOT an MIT institutional core, but a departmental resource. Departments that fund the operation of the BioMicro Center are given priority for all resources within the Center. Several labs that have provided major equipment donations to the BioMicro Center are also considered to be CORE. The BioMicro Center is funded by:
* The Department of Biology 
* The Department of BioEngineering
* The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
* MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences

=== ASSISTED versus WALKUP SERVICES ===
Services available in the BioMicro Center are offered either as assisted or as walk-up. Walk-up Services are those where the Center provides training and maintenance of equipment and may also provide some consumables. Scheduling for Walk-up services is available through the calendar functions on ilabs and are almost exclusively limited to MIT users except in rare cases. Non-MIT users should contact biomicro@mit.edu to schedule walk-up equipment.<BR><BR>
Assisted services are those where samples are delivered to the BioMicro Center and are analyzed by Center staff. These are set up using the [[BioMicroCenter:Forms|FORMS]] on this site or the "Request Services" tab in [https://mit.ilabsolutions.com/sc/3381/ki-genomics-core-mit-biomicro-center/?tab=about ilabs]. Assisted services cannot typically be "scheduled" with rare exceptions.

=== STANDARD versus HIGH THROUGHPUT LIBRARY PREPARATION ===
Standard library preparation is designed to maximize successful production of libraries and is used for routine work and should also be used for all precious samples. Standard library preparation includes initial sample quality control as well as at least one repeat for each library preparation if required due to sample failure. Standard library preparation is charged on a per sample basis. Standard libraries may be prepared by hand or using automation depending on throughput of the core. <BR><BR>

High Throughput library (HTL) preparation is designed to minimize cost and has many differences from standard library preparation as a result. HTLs costs do NOT include initial sample quality control nor repeats of failures of individual samples. As such, we very strongly discourage HTL library prep for precious samples or experiments with limited replicates (N<=3). Replicate counts of 4 are considered the minimum with 6 being recommended where possible. Some methods, such as HT3DGE, can never repeat failed samples, while others can be reproduced by hand, though that does create a technical variable that can impact analysis. HTLs are almost always produced using liquid handlers, typically using miniaturization, and may require submission of the samples in specific formats (noted on each library prep type). HTLs are spot checked for quality after library production. Full quality control before and after experiments as well as sample arraying and sample cleaning is available at an additional charge.<BR><BR>

We have published a manuscript highlighting some of the methods on [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/33100919/ JBT].<BR><BR>

A webinar by our director for SPT Labtech [https://www.sptlabtech.com/resources/automated-low-volume-liquid-handling-for-cost-effective-ngs-library-preparation-and-single-cell-genomics-webinar-sign-up can be found here]