Molecular structure model

Using computation to explore the natural world

Location: King Henry Building

Our Sequencing and Bioinformatics laboratory is the hub for working with a variety of DNA and RNA sequencing tools, as well as high-throughput nanopore sequencers.

Through hands-on experiments, you'll see how DNA and RNA pass through tiny pores and are then decoded into their constituent parts by machine learning algorithms.

The facility includes a wide range of computational tools to analyse nanopore sequencing data and other next-generation sequencing platforms. Additionally, we maintain pipelines for sequencing applications such as whole (meta) genome assemblies, RNA sequences, targeted sequences, and amplicon sequences.

Our lab collaborates on a wide range of research projects, especially those that use  and (ONT) for high-throughput sequencing, and has recently served as a virus Genomics UK (COG-UK) . We also host a range of research projects within the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI), exploring the genomes of naturally occurring microorganisms to identifying enzymes with potential industrial applications.

Equipment and amenities

  • MinION nanopore sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies)
  • GridION nanopore sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies)
  • P2Solo PromethION nanopore sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies)
  • VolTrax automatic sample preparation (Oxford Nanopore Technologies)
  • Qubit 4 fluorometer (Invitrogen)
  • DS-11 Spectrophotomer (Denovix)
  • 4150 TapeStation (Agilent)
  • Bioinformatics High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster, which includes:
    • Four 24-CPU compute nodes with 768 GB RAM
    • Two 24-CPU compute nodes with 384GB RAM
    • One GPU compute node with two V100 Tesla GPUs and 1,024 GB RAM
    • One head node with 48 CPUs and 384 GB RAM
    • One PB of redundant data storage connected via a 10GbE Network
       

Contact us

If you're interested in our sequencing and bioinformatics facilities – please email seqandbio@port.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 23 9284 2043.

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Where to find us

Sequencing and Bioinformatics Group laboratory
King Henry Building
King Henry I Street
Portsmouth
PO1 2DY