GeneChip Facility

Housed in the Molecular Biology Building, near the Carver Co-laboratory, the GeneChip Facility is equipped to perform microarray analyses for researchers using the Affymetrix GeneChip instrumentation system. Major equipment in the facility includes a GCS 3000 scanner with autoloader, two Fluidics station 450s, a Hybridization Oven 640, two computer workstations, and server for backing-up and distributing data. Also located in the Facility are an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer and Nanodrop spectrophotometer that are used to determine sample quantity and integrity and for quality control at all key steps of target labeling prior to hybridization. The facility accepts samples of total RNA or mRNA isolated from eukaryotic organisms for labeling and hybridization to Affymetrix GeneChip probe arrays supplied by the user. The current fee for this service is $300 per sample. The facility manager, Dr. Jiqing Peng, has labeled and/or hybridized over 1,500 samples since the inception of the facility three years ago.