UCLA Bioinformatics Program

Abstract:

Massively parallel sequencing, or so called ‘next gen’ sequencing is providing unprecedented insights into the genome permitting 1) whole genome and whole exome sequencing, economical large scale targeted sequencing for variant discovery, 2) CHIP_SEQ for full access to genomic binding targets, 3) RNA_SEQ for more complete surveys of transcription on a genome scale, 4) Methyl_SEQ providing genomic assessment of methylation status at base resolution.  Huge improvements in the technology over the past two years has resulted in the routine ability to generate about 20-30 billion bases of sequence information from each machine each week. A single run of a machine can generate up to 500 million reads of up to 100 bases in length and further improvements are coming. However, the scale of the data and expense of equipment set up and operation are impeding application to biological problems on the UCLA campus. We are creating the UCLA Center for High Throughput Biology (CHTB) that leverages substantial on campus expertise in next generation sequencing to enable UCLA biomedical researchers to harness the power of new genomics technologies. CHTB will provide: 1) adequate capacity and staff who run the sequencing machines and train users on library preparation; 2) adequate computational power and staff to process and store the raw data: and 3) provide a structure for establishing collaborations between informaticians and experimentalists on campus.  This talk will describe the Center, current technologies, the plan for implementation of the Center including access to the Center through partnerships with individual faculty and campus institutes. The CHTB will foster collaborations between experimentalists and computational biologists in each of four research areas: Expression / RNA Seq analysis; Regulation / ChIP Seq analysis; Resequencing / variation analysis; New genomes and metagenomics.

http://genomics.ctrl.ucla.edu/pmwiki/