Next generation genome sequencer. (360G-Wellcome-088000_Z_08_Z)

The sequencing of large numbers of genomes has opened up numerous new exciting possibilities for novel avenues of research on a scale that was previously impossible to contemplate. More recent technological advances such as next generation sequencers have further accelerated our ability to ask questions about how the genome behaves and is modified. There are three major applications of this technology; genome resequencing (eg for mutation detection), RNA-Seq (for analysing global gene expressi on patterns) and ChIP-Seq (eg for identifying transcription factor binding sites). All these approaches map onto projects that are currently being pursued by researchers at the University of Manchester but which cannot currently be executed to their full potential due to the lack of this technology in house. In particular, several projects will be facilitated by ChIP-Seq and are centred on understanding how the genome is regulated by transcription factors and chromatin modifications in a dynamic manner. Genome sequencing will be used to help find the molecular causes underlying human disease and provide an evolutionary insight into the construction of gene regulatory modules. Moreover there is also a growing realisation that RNA-Seq is an essential discovery tool for interrogating gene expression changes in the cell.