Genomics resources 

The Oxford Nanopore GridION X5 is used to sequence long pieces of DNA and RNA by detecting current changes as they pass through ‘nanopores’ (long read sequencing). It is ideally suited to sequencing relatively small genomes (<600Mb) and metagenomic sequencing. The GridION X5 can sequence five MinION flow cells in parallel and do all the data processing on its on-board computer processors. It also allows researchers to develop custom software to optimise sequencing. For example, the Loose lab have used it in ‘Read Until’ – software based selective sequencing, allowing targeted resequencing of specific regions in a genome. 

The PromethION 24 is another Oxford Nanopore sequencer and works in the same way as the GridION X5. However, the PromethION 24 has a much higher throughput and so is ideally suited to larger sequencing projects such as sequencing medium to large genomes. Like the GridION, the PromethION can run multiple flow cells at once and has a powerful on-board processer for data processing. 

The 10X Chromium Controller is used for sequencing the gene products (RNA) from thousands of individual cells in parallel (single cell RNA-Seq). The Chromium system can uniquely label all the mRNA from each individual cell. This technique allows researchers to identify different cell type characteristics and differences in complex mixtures of cells/tissues. These differences would be missed by standard RNA-Seq and therefore the Chromium Controller provides invaluable understanding of whole tissue or organism processes. 

The Mosquito HV is a robotics platform used to process samples in high throughput DNA sequencing protocols. It allows the number of samples that can be processed at a time to be scaled up to 384 – far beyond the capacity for manual processing. Due to its low volume, high accuracy pipetting capabilities, the Mosquito allows scaling down of reagent volumes, thus reducing costs for large projects.   

The Bionano Saphyr is used for analysing genome structure through imaging very long pieces of labelled DNA (optical mapping). This allows researchers to use existing next generation sequence data to provide much more complete genome sequences. It is of particular use to researchers interested in plant genomes, as these are particularly difficult to sequence.    

Allows researchers to perform sequencing in the field, rather than the lab. The kit has all the equipment required to process a sample and sequence it with limited access to power or lab facilities. It includes a range of equipment including a thermal cycler, centrifuge and Nanopore portable sequencer all contained in small hard-shell carry case. Additional equipment such as LiION power packs, cool bags, laptops and ice packs are available to customise the kit to researchers’ needs.  

The Illumina MiSeq is a low throughput DNA sequencer, which can produce DNA sequence data with read lengths of up to 2x 300 bp. It is ideally suited for sequencing small genomes (e.g. bacteria) or sequencing 16S libraries for metagenomic analysis. 

The Illumina NextSeq is a low-medium throughput DNA sequencer, which can produce reads of up to 2x 150 bp. It is ideally suited to RNA-Seq projects, sequencing low numbers of small to medium sized genomes for genome assembly or high numbers of small to medium sized genomes at low sequence coverage. 

Deep Seq houses a range of equipment for checking the quality and quantity of DNA and RNA including TapeStation, Bioanalyser and Qubit.