Genomic and Computational Biology Support for NIDCD Intramural Research

National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Goals and Objectives The NIDCD/NIDCR Genomics and Computational Biology Core provides support for developing cutting edge sequencing technologies to NIDCD and NIDCR investigators on a collaborative basis. The GCBC prepares sequence-ready libraries from investigator-supplied RNA or DNA samples, performs QC analyses and sequencing reactions, and analyzes the data in collaboration with investigators. NIDCD and NIDCR investigators are charged for reagent costs of library preparation and sequencing only. The NIDCD/NIDCR GCBC will also archive the data and assist investigators in uploading the necessary data files to a suitable public archive, in compliance with their Institutes Genome Data Sharing (GDS) policy. Summary FY2020 In FY2020, the number of projects which occupied space on 173 sequencing machine runs, and thus can be easily tracked, was 61 (11 NIDCD; 50 NIDCR). For these projects > 1,200 libraries were prepared, and the reagents consumed in library preparation and sequencing totaled > $509,544 ($107,760 NIDCD; $401,784 NIDCR). The decline from the FY2019 total of $745,172 can be attributed to the covid 19 shutdown. The distribution of projects, in terms of reagents consumed, continues to be biased significantly towards single-cell RNA-seq. We devoted substantial effort to developing Oxford Nanopore and PacBio technology (Iso-seq and Whole Genome projects), both in library production techniques and data analyses for RNA isoform sequencing. In addition, there were numerous projects, not easily tracked, in which samples were not actively sequenced, but required considerable bioinformatics time and effort. Thus, in FY2020 the GCBC worked on substantially more than 61 projects.