Scotland’s GenePool sequencing centre in Edinburgh will double its capacity to read DNA, buying two more high-speed machines and a prototype third-generation sequencer that could dwarf even today’s fastest instruments. Reading DNA has been possible for decades, but older machines were too slow and costly for large-scale medical research. The new generation of sequencers can read billions of DNA letters in days, not years. Last year, the GenePool already read 100 billion bases—roughly 30 human genomes’ worth. This grant will let it handle twice that volume, and the third-generation machine will push far beyond. If this succeeds, researchers across Scotland will get faster, cheaper access to DNA data. That means they can run larger studies on how genetic differences influence disease, track how pathogens evolve, or compare genomes across species. The centre will also hire lab technicians and biocomputing specialists to help researchers make sense of the flood of data. This is infrastructure, not a single experiment. It does not promise a cure next year. But without such hubs, the fundamental science that eventually leads to new diagnostics or treatments simply cannot happen.
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The reading of the DNA code in our genomes and the genomes of other organisms has revolutionised what can be done by medical researchers. While the technology to read the DNA sequence of genes was invented over 40 years ago, until recently it has been too slow and too expensive to use in many research programmes. However, in the last five years a new generation of DNA sequence readers has been invented, and these machines, working at thousands or millions the pace of the older technology, promise to let researchers use DNA sequence in more and more precise, and more and more exciting, projects. In Scotland, the GenePool is a DNA sequencing service based in the University of Edinburgh that lets researchers throughout the region generate DNA sequences from their experiments. The GenePool has already invested in two of the new generation of sequencing instruments, and read over one hundred thousand million bases of DNA sequence (100 Gigabases - about 30 human genomes-worth) last year. In this proposal we request funding from the UK Medical Research Council to double our ability to deliver DNA sequence to medical and biomedical researchers throughout Scotland. We will purchase two more of the current crop of ?next generation? DNA sequencing instruments, and develop a highly efficient and cost-effective centre to produce DNA data for users. We will also in the medium term buy one of the third generation of DNA sequences - output from which is likely to dwarf the new sequencing machines just as they dwarfed the old methods. We will also invest in highly trained laboratory technologists and biocomputing scientists to help users identify the important genetic information in their data.
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