The Genetic Markers Service maintains a selection of state-of-the-art equipment for genotyping and other genetic analyses. This equipment includes a capillary sequencer capable of generating over 5,000 genotypes per week and a mass spectrometer capable of 10 times that capacity.
Applied Biosystems 3130xl Capillary Sequencer
The Applied Biosystems 3130xl Capillary Sequencer is a 16 capillary mid-level genotyping instrument that also allows for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovery via fluorescent DNA sequencing and the analysis of STR genotyping via fluorescent based PCR. This instrument is configured to accommodate 96-well plates. |
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Sequenom MassARRAY MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer
This versatile instrument can perform highly multiplexed SNP genotyping, Ins/dels, CNV genotyping (currently 30-plex) as well as quantitative analyses of DNA methylation and RNA. It features well-developed user front-end software allowing for experimental design and post-experiment data analysis. It is also one of the first to be configured in the 96-well plate format.
The SNP genotyping is cost-effective because it can use generic oligonucleotide primers (as opposed to proprietary, vendor-supplied primers) available from most oligonucleotide manufacturers.
DNA methylation studies performed on the MassARRAY allow for the simultaneous quantitative interrogation of multiple CpG sites in the target regions. |
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