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- Illumina NovaSeq 6000 (one)
- Illumina MiSeq sequencers (three)
- Illumina NextSeq 500 sequencer (two)
- Covaris S220 and E220 Adaptive Focused Acoustic shearing devices
- Agilent BioAnalyzer 2100
- Agilent TapeStation
- Invitrogen Qubit fluorimeter and Thermoscientific Fluoroskan
- Tecan Evo and Hamilton Nimbus
- 10x Chromium system
- Ion Torrent S5
Lab protocols we are experienced with:
- Creation of fragment DNA sequencing libraries for all Illumina next-gen sequencersCreation of mate-pair sequencing libraries between 1.5kb and 4kb for Illumina next-gen sequencers
- Creation of RNA-seq libraries from total RNA, small RNA, and immuno-precipitated RNA for Illumina next-gen sequencers
- Creation of amplicon libraries (particularly 16s and ITS regions) for the Illumina next-gen sequencers
- Human exome and custom capture with the Agilent SureSelect, Illumina TruSeq, and Nimblegen SeqCap EZ kits
- Sample and library QC using the Agilent BioAnalyzer, Picogreen and Ribogreen fluorimetry, qPCR, and spectrophotometry
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Our Mission and Vision
VisionMission: The GSAF’s vision Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility mission is to be a world-class genomic analysis center in terms of data quality, breadth of available methods, and productivity.Mission: The mission of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Facility is to provide the best quality analytical results with the best value to life science researchers.provide the community with a level of technical expertise and experience that will support ongoing research projects. We aim to provide the highest quality data, develop strong customer relationships through individualized support, and provide educational opportunities that focus on the rapidly evolving field of genomics.
Vision: Support state of the art equipment and expand our services supporting research by incorporating new methodologies and techniques into the core to advance research.
Values: Our core facility is dedicated to the researchers we serve and the staff members that make the facility a success. We promote strong collaborations with researchers always welcoming the experienced and novice scientist, focus on education opportunities for the customers we support and continuing education for our staff and operate at the highest level of integrity with full transparency.
Our People
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| Jessica Wheeler Podnar
Associate Director
(512) 232-5924
MBB 3.210
gsaf@utgsaf.org |
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| Jessica joined the GSAF is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University and began her career in cell and molecular biology over 17 years ago starting at a biotech company in Reno, NV focused on telomere biology. Her next endeavor led to the Genomic Sequencing Facility where she began as the Lab Manager in June 2010, as the facility lab manager, when she came on board the core was focused on 454 and SOLiD sequencing but soon transitioned to focus Illumina platforms. She has a wealth of knowledge covering library preparation, sequencing and project planning. She is an active member in the DNA Sequencing Research Group as part of Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities. Prior to joining the university Jessica worked at Sierra Sciences, a biotech company located in Reno NV, 4 years as a researcher and laboratory manager in the cell culture division. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University. |
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| Heather Deiderick
Post-doctoral researcher
(512) 475-9725 |
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| Heather is one of several PhD scientists on staff and has years of experience with all manner of molecular biology techniques. She currently specializes in working with researchers to develop new approaches and protocols for the GSAF. If you want to try something new with NextGen sequencing, contact us. We are eager to try new methods to get you the data you need!her role continued to grow and expand so did her responsibilities which eventually lead to the opportunity to serve as the Director. Her years of experience covers a wide range of applications, from protocol development and optimization, the many transitions in NGS platforms and preps, lab and personnel management, establishing pricing structures and policies for the facility, all the way to setting up COVID testing laboratory for the university. She is also an active member of the Association for Biomolecular Resource Facilities and serves as the chair for the DNA Sequencing Research Group. |
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| Gabriella Huerta
Research Engineering Scientist Associate IVProgram Manager
(512) 475-9725 |
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| Gabriella manages the Illumina sequencing operations and contributes to all aspects of the genomic sequencing enterprise. Every library barcode, concentration and quality control metric is carefully scrutinized by Gabriella, as she performs the complex task of setting up the sequencing runs to assure the highest quality results. With prior experience running NGS operations at Perlegen Sciences and Pfizer, Gabriella has the depth of experience to get the jobs done right. |
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| Holly StevensonMatt Barnette
Research Engineering Scientist Associate III
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| Holly is a PhD scientist with prior experience applying and tailoring molecular protocols to cancer genetics research during her time as a graduate student and postdoc. Her interests expanded to include genomics and she subsequently served as a Biologist in a core facility for 5 years at the National Cancer Institute, preparing NGS libraries and implementing microarrays for both research and clinical studies. Since joining GSAF in 2017, she has assisted in testing and expanding new services, including TagSeq and 10X Genomics single-cell technologies. She currently operates the Illumina Novaseq sequencer, manages and performs runs for single-cell studies, and aids customers in project planning and troubleshooting. |
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| Andrew Villarreal
Administrative Associate |
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| Andrew is a University of Texas at Austin alumnus who joined the CBRS team in 2015. He has over 15 years of experience in business operations, shipping, and receiving. He provides support by processing invoices, internal vouchers, and purchasing for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Biomedical Imaging Center, DNA Sequencing Facility, and Genomic Sequencing and Analysis FacilityMatt is the genomic library preparation master. Whether RNA or DNA, short fragments or long, simple steps or complex, there is no procedure Matt has not tamed. When not keeping rhythm on the drums for a local band, Matt is busy writing scripts to help our internal processes run efficiently and accurately. |
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| Aditi KarmakarHolly Stevenson
Research Engineering Scientist Associate III |
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| Holly is a PhD scientist with prior experience applying and tailoring genetic technologies to cancer research and clinical studies at the National Cancer Institute. She joined GSAF in 2017 and has over 15 years of experience in molecular biology methods. She currently aids customers by preparing Aditi has a master's degree in Genetic Engineering from India and has over 11 years of experience in molecular biology techniques. She has been under UT community for 5 years, and previously she has extensive experience in understanding and handling DNA and RNA for various Research purposes both in and outside UT. She was looking at how different environmental factors like; diet and alcohol can affect CNS inflammatory disorders like Multiple sclerosis in Melamed lab in UT and that experience gave her an immense knowledge on various molecular mechanisms as well as the variety of techniques that are used to study them. She has also worked as one of the technicians in Sanger core and processed samples for sequencing and Fragment analysis. She is currently involved in a variety of DNA/RNA libraries, assists in library preparations and operating our Illumina sequencers, and helps in testing and implementing new NGS services.Miseq sequencers. |
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| María Jose GomezJuili Kelvekar
Research Engineering Scientist Associate II
(512) 475-9725 |
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| María attended the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia where she completed her studies on Biology with a minor in Bioinformatics. Before joining the GSAF her work included a variety of molecular techniques on systems such as rodents, frogs, bacteria, viruses and plants. As part of the GSAF her focus is on NGS library preparation, including DNA libraries, RNA-Seq, TagSeq and quality control of said libraries.
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| John Ludes-Meyers
Research Engineering Scientist Associate IV |
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| John joined the GSAF after over 25 years of academic research focusing on molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. John’s passion for molecular genetics began while studying RNA tumor viruses as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota. He continued studying viruses as a graduate student at Texas A&M University working on papillomavirus replication. His post-doctoral work started a long stint of cancer biology research leading to a decade of work as a Research Scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center-Science Park studying the novel tumor suppressor, WWOX. After a short break from science to experience the world of software development at National Instruments, John came back to scientific research at UT. John has a wide spectrum of technical experience in molecular and cellular biology. As a member of GSAF John will apply his expertise to NGS library construction, single-cell gene expression and DNA methylation array servicesJuili helps in managing Sanger sequencing as well as NextGen sequencing core and contributes to DNA/RNA library preparation, QA analysis, routine Sanger sequencing and maintaining Bio analyzers. She has a versatile background in nanotechnology and Biomedical engineering and worked on many complex research projects. Her prior experience involved synthesizing contrast agents for disease detection and for therapeutic drug delivery. She is very detailed oriented and like to work on different challenging projects.
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| Zachary CarverTina Arredondo
Research Engineering Scientist Associate II |
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