Editing BioMicroCenter:News2011 (section)

=== Jan 2011 ===
Dear Users,<BR><BR>
I hope everyone had a great holiday. We have a couple updates as we begin the year.<BR><BR>
One of our goals for this year is to reduce our turnaround time as much as we can. We’ve taken a couple steps in this direction (though we have a long way to go!). First, we have brought a number of additional technicians on board. Michael Gravina joins us from Alnylam and will be working on the Illumina platform. Barbara Karampalas is joining us part time to work on automation. In addition we added two new coop students, Katie Sullivan and Justin Elliott, who will be taking Eris’ place as he returns to Northeastern, and we are looking to make an additional hire in the bioinformatics area (in collaboration with the Koch Institute Bioinformatics and Computing Core). Make sure you say hello the next time you stop by.<BR><BR>
In addition to new staff, we have also upgraded some of our equipment. This week we are adding a new Caliper LabChip system. The LabChip is a high throughput version of the Agilent BioAnalyzer (which uses Caliper technology) and can process hundreds of samples in a batch. Our on-site testing with the LabChip had a significant effect on the speed at which we were able to handle quality control. In order to automate the process, we will have to increase the minimum volume of sample we accept (to 5ul). For most applications, simply diluting your samples 2 fold prior to submission will be sufficient. We will be using the LabChip to handle high sensitivity DNA and standard RNA samples while small RNA, pico RNA and protein samples will continue to be run on the BioAnalyzer.  Prices for the LabChip and the BioAnalyzer will be the same but we will be able to offer discounts on large sample submissions that are run on the Caliper. <BR><BR>
Finally, we are in the finishing stages of beta testing our new RNA-seq sample prep service.  An addition to our existing DNA sample prep, we will be able to accept submissions of total RNA for sequencing just as we do for microarrays. Our current protocol is derived from Chris Burge’s lab but we are also testing kits from NuGEN for digital gene expression (DGE) which we hope will offer microarray quality results for considerably lower costs. If you are interested in helping out and have samples you are willing to contribute, please contact Ryan Sinapius who is coordinating the effort. <BR><BR>
As a reminder, this email only goes out to people who are have used the BioMicro Center within the past couple years. Please feel free to forward this message on to anyone else who might be interested.<BR><BR>
Thank you all for your support,<BR><BR>
-Stuart Levine<BR><BR>