About Us

Our Resources

The Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility at the University of Texas at Austin is located in room 4.102 of the MBB building, which houses the ICMB. We perform next-gen sequencing and microarray studies for UT researchers from any department and from external research entities, both public and private. We are supported by UT's Texas Institute for Drug & Diagnostic Development and the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology.

In approximately 2,000 square feet of controlled-access laboratory space, our facility currently includes:

One Illumina HiSeq 2000 next-generation DNA sequencer and associated peripherals. The HiSeq can generate over 600 gigabases of sequence in an 11-day run. The GSAF has experience generating small RNA, mRNA, genomic DNA fragment, and genomic DNA large-insert mate-pair libraries for the Illumina platform.
One Life Technologies 5500 XL next-generation DNA sequencer and associated peripherals. The 5500XL can generate over 200 gigabases of sequence using the unique 2-base encoding scheme for higher accuracy. As with the HiSeq, the GSAF has experience generating small RNA, mRNA, genomic DNA fragment, and genomic DNA large-insert mate-pair libraries for the 5500 XL
One Roche 454 next-generation DNA sequencer (FLX with Titanium chemistry) and associated peripherals. The 454 FLX can generate over one million DNA sequences per day, with an average read length of over 400 base-pairs. As with the SOLiD, we can analyze one sample to great depth, or many samples in parallel to a lower depth.
Informatic tools and hardware sufficient for analysis of next-generation DNA sequencing data, including:
1. A Dell PowerEdge R900 server with four, quad-core E7340 Xeon, 2.4GHz processors (16 cores total), 1066Mhz FSB, 64 GB memory, and 5.6 TB RAID-6 disk space, with BWA, Bowtie, Shrimp, SOAP, and mapreads aligners, NCBI BLAST, and R/Bioconductor, and several de novo assemblers, sequence editors, and genome browsers.
2. The resources of Lonestar, a 22,656 core supercomputer hosted by UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center, with 1 petabyte of scratch disk storage and 276 TB of compute-node disk storage. The GSAF has software stacks and experience appropriate to your project and both we and TACC staff can assist you in training your students to use this resource effectively.

Our Mission and Vision

Vision: The GSAF’s vision 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.

Our People

Director: Scott Hunicke-Smith, Ph.D.
(512) 232-5924
MBB 2.406
scotth@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Hunicke-Smith joined UT Austin in August of 2008 to start next-generation sequencing activities at UT. Prior to joining UT, he was VP and General Manager of the molecular biology Services’ division of Asuragen, a spin-out of Ambion. He joined in Ambion in July of 2003 as Director of Business Development, Instrumentation. He was promoted to Vice President, Business Development in March of 2004 and to Vice President, Ambion Services in September of 2005. Prior to joining Ambion, Dr. Hunicke-Smith served as founder and CEO of GeneMachines, a molecular biology equipment firm, from 1997 through March of 2003. Dr. Hunicke-Smith also served on the Board of Directors of Silicon Genetics, a bioinformatics software firm, from 1998 until Agilent acquired it in 2004. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in the laboratory of Ron Davis in 1997 and is an inventor on seven issued patents.

Bioinformatician
(512) 471-7138
MBB 2.404
darasappan@mail.utexas.edu

Dhivya joined the GSAF team in April 2008 and primarily deals with analysis of Next-gen sequencing data. Prior to joining UT, she was working at the National Center of Toxicological Research, FDA. At FDA, she was involved in analysis of gene expression data. She has a Masters in Bioinformatics from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelors in computer science from Anna University, India.

Laboratory Manager
(512) 475-9725
MBB 4.102
jessicawheeler24@gmail.com

Jessica joined the GSAF in June 2010. Prior to joining UT Jessica worked at Sierra Sciences, a biotech company located in Reno NV, 4 years as a researcher and laboratory manager for the cell culture department. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University, earning a BS in Biology in 2002.

Heather Deiderick
Post-doctoral researcher
(512) 475-9725

Brief Bio

Jillian DeBlanc
Lab Research Assistant
(512) 475-9725

Brief Bio

Melanie Weiler
Lab Research Assistant
(512) 475-9725

Brief Bio

Gabriella Huerta
Research Scientist
(512) 475-9725

Brief bio...

Terry Heckmann,
Lab Research Assistant
(512) 475-9725

Brief Bio

Margaret Lutz
Research Scientist
(512) 475-9725

Brief Bio

Group photos

Group Lunch, August 2012.

Group Lunch, May 2011.

Group photo, Spring 2009

Alumni

Heather Jefts
Title: Lab Research Assistant

Brief Bio

Joe Cruz
Title: Undergraduate Research Assistant, Bioinformatics

Brief Bio

Meredith Corley
Title: Undergraduate Research Assistant

Meredith was an undergraduate research assistant in 2009 and 2010 and then worked with the GSAF on her senior honors thesis. She is now a graduate student at the University of North Carolina.