High-Throughput Genome Analysis Core

The IGSB High-throughput Genome Analysis Core (HGAC) is a state-of-the-art facility providing resources and services for ultra-high-throughput sequencing and large-scale microarray processing.  Operated by the IGSB, the HGAC facility is available to IGSB investigators and their collaborators nationwide.  This year we added the Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing system to our sequencing pipeline.  The HiSeq 2000 is housed in the KCBD building at the University of Chicago and is integrated into our sequencing capacity with four Illumina Genome Analyzer II sequencers and a Roche Diagnostics Genome Sequencer FLX System (GS-FLX).  The Roche GS-FLX sequencing platform allows investigators to perform longer read sequencing runs compared to the Illumina platform.  The Roche GS-FLX platform produces up to one million reads at an average read length of 400 bp per instrument run.  Whereas the Illumina sequencing platform produces shorter reads (current maximum read length = 150 bp) but many more of them compared to the Roche GS-FLX platform.  A single Illumina HiSeq 2000 run can produce up to two billion reads and a total run output of 200 Gb.  The facility also performs tiling and expression microarray hybridizations using the Tecan HS 4800 Pro automated hybridization station. 

Technical Director Marc Domanus coordinates day-to-day activities in the HGAC facility.  Under his guidance, the HGAC team helps users determine the most efficient and cost-effective approach to meeting their research needs.  HGAC staff are assigned to each user and guide the investigator from initial sample preparation through the primary analysis of the resulting data.  The HGAC is available at cost to a wide range of researchers in the Chicago area.  Ongoing HGAC projects include metagenomic sequencing of microbes within the human gut in inflammatory bowel disease, sequencing of chromatin immunoprecipitated genome regions involved in gene regulation, and sequencing of cancer transcripts to define a tumor sample’s transcriptome and gene expression profile.