|
|
The Sequencing Service
School of Life Sciences
MSI/WTB Complex
University of Dundee
Dundee
DD1 5EH Scotland
|
|
|
Our 3730 DNA Sequencer has
Arrived!
After the long wait, our new DNA sequencer (Code named
"Scrooge") arrived last Thursday (27th of February 2003).
Jason and Jamie from Commercial Trading Company Ltd used
some rather serious lifting gear (the 3730 weighs around 200
kg) to bring the crate up from stores, unpack the 3730 and
then lift it onto the trolley that was waiting for it. To
see some pictures of the delivery process, please follow
this link.
Due to the specialist power requirements of the
sequencer, the extremely dedicated University Estates and
Buildings electricians had to spend most of Saturday wiring
in a new 32 amp circuit to give life to the new recruit!
Fortunately this was all completed with no problems and
allowed the ABI engineer (Ian) to set up the instrument the
following Tuesday and Wednesday. A couple of pictures of Ian
setting up the 3730 can also be found
here.
A New Era in DNA Sequencing
- Important Information
Due to the radically different technology used in our new
machine compared with our older gel-based machines, we are
having to change a number of key aspects of our service.
Please read carefully the information below. This will help
to ensure that you continue to obtain the best possible
sequencing results.
- You will now need to send less template DNA. For
standard plasmids this is 200-300 ng per reaction. For
full details of template amounts and what to send, please
check here.
- You must now send your template DNA in a standard
volume (15µl per reaction). Check
here for more info.
- We no longer accept ready to run (code 1) samples.
- We no longer accept "one-tube" reactions (code 10).
If you have any questions about the changes to our
service, please contact us.
We will shortly be introducing new further discounted
prices for "bulk" sequencing. This will require samples to
be submitted in 96 well microtitre plates. At the moment we
cannot introduce this service, since we do not have a plate
spinning centrifuge (!) and we also need time to ensure that
we can reliably process samples in this format. We will make
an announcement when this service becomes available.
The Key Benefits of the New
Machine are:
- Reduced hands on time due to full "walk away"
operation
- Mis-tracking will be a thing of the past...
- Increased read length (the best templates will now be
able to produce up to c.1Kb reads)
- Increased sensitivity (less template will be
required)
- Faster throughput
P.S. For those of you who were wondering why the new
machine is called "Scrooge" (you were weren't you?), it's
just a "duck thing"... . For reasons that are too
complicated, and frankly embarassing, to explain, there is a
duck theme in The Sequencing Service". This started with the
naming of our Qiagen Bio-Robot 9600 - "Donald" - and
continued with "Daisy" (our MWG PCR machine) and then Huey,
Louie and Dewey (the 377XL, 377 and 373XL in that order).
Now the proud (?) tradition has been maintained with
"Scrooge". For those of you who haven't figured it out yet,
these are all names of Walt Disney ducks (and for the
record, Scrooge is Donald's uncle).
If you have questions about any aspect of our service,
please don't hesitate to contact
us. If you have any comments you would like to make,
please feel free to use our
feedback form. Also,
please see our Data Protection
Statement.
Home| Search| Information| Services/Prices| Sample
Submission|
Sample
Retrieval|
Useful
Links|
Registering| Downloads| Trouble-shooting| FAQs| SOPs| Terms and
Conditions|
Index
|