Illumina have finally dropped the NeoPrep from their lineup after a short but pretty rocky road. Launched at AGBT15 the instrument promised hassle free library prep automation for users that did not require full 96well plate production-scale solutions. Early access users I spoke to at […]
Introducing NovaSeq This is the second part of my “everything you wanted to know about NovaSeq blog and in it I’ll finish up by discussing some of the challenges the instrument presents for Core Labs and their users, and the costs of running NovaSeq compared to […]
Introducing NovaSeq This is the first part of a 2 part blog. Part 1 “everything you wanted to know about NovaSeq” covers the technical aspects of NovaSeq, Illumina’s latest sequencer launched on Jan 9th 2017. The instrument is very clearly the next proper step in Illumina technology, which […]
Wet-lab: your traditional research lab with lots going on at the bench (often collaborating with dry-labs).Dry-lab: A computational or mathematical lab focusing on analysis of other peoples data (sometimes collaborating with dry-labs).Moist-lab: the new style of lab with both wet- and dry-staff, working together with […]
It’s that time of year again. The end of the financial year (for many of us) when most core facility managers get frantic calls asking if work can be billed now but done later. Lets face it this is simply a money laundering exercise but […]
At regular intervals throughput the year I am asked for some help with costing next-gen sequencing experiments in grant proposals. The request usually comes towards the middle of the week leaving only a day or two before the deadline but that’s just how we work […]
There are six people working in the Genomics Core lab I run, including myself. It is exactly five years since I started and in that time five members of my team have come and gone. The next person to go will mean I hit a […]
What should a core offer? The authors of the Science TranslationalMedicine paper list four things a core needs: (i) sophisticated instruments, (ii)staff expertise in their operation, (iii) expertise in analysing the data and (iv) an ability to provide advice through consultation with users. In […]
A recent commentary article in Science TranslationalMedicine on core facilities is probably of interest to those other core lab directors reading my blog. I wanted to look at some of the points they raise and give my thoughts as a core facility director.Gregory Faber from […]
Back in April Tales of the Genomic Repairman discussed five core facility stereotypes; Core of ill-repute, High $ Hooka core, the Waiting by the phone for the core to call core, the High maintenance core and the Easy core next door. I hope my users see […]
