Omics Research Cores
The mission of the Omics Research Cores is to gather researchers and highthroughput technologies involved in the study and comprehensive analysis of biological systems at various molecular levels.
The Omics Research Cores include:
• the Biorepository Core providing long-term storage of clinical and research materials such as samples, cell lines, tissue and blood samples, and DNA/RNA extracts;
• the Digital Pathology Core that uses digital technology to capture, manage, and interpret pathological images and associated data. Ultimately replacing traditional glass slides and microscopes, the digital images are analyzed using Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning (AI/ML) — a necessity for faculty members at Meharry’s newly established School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS).
• the Genotyping & Microarray Core housing the study of gene expression, SNP genotyping, and cytogenetics along with custom microarray production and analysis.
• the Mitochondrial Genomics Core focusing on studying the association between the mtDNA, maternal fingerprinting and identification, and a wide variety of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
• the Single Cell Sequencing & Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Core provides high-throughput single cell genome, transcriptome, immunome, or copy number analysis in a variety of cell types as well as single-cell nuclei. Data analytics here will be supported by SACS faculty members.
• the Immunogenomics & Immune Cell Therapy Core allows immunogenotyping and phenotyping of PBMCs in various chronic diseases, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and characterizing differences in immune cell distribution and functional assays to elucidate biological consequences of genetic variants associated with disease outcomes. This Core also supports the development and optimization of adoptive T cell and NK cell therapies.
• the Microbial Genomics Core houses studies of the contribution of discrete microbial genetic traits to pathogenesis, host microbiome, drug resistance, and transmission of single bacterial species as well as of microbial communities.
• the Pharmaco- & Toxicogenomics Core supports studies pertaining to how the genome responds to insults from environmental toxicants. The genome level changes induced by toxic chemicals in genes, proteins, lipids, and metabolites are expressed at the cellular and/or molecular level. Measuring changes at the genome level in affected organ tissues is useful for establishing markers of toxicity for cancer and other diseases. Such studies elucidate how genetic variation among individuals can inform the susceptibility to specific pollutants.
Specialized Equipment
CLC Genomics Workbench (Qiagen): Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), RNA-Seq, and Metagenomics
PEAKS Proteomics Software (Bioinformatics Solutions Inc):Protein Database search, label-free and labeled quantitative proteomics profiling, post-translational modification identification
Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) (Qiagen):Multi-Omics data analysis software toturn experimental data into biological insights
Thermo Fischer EXPLORIS 120 Mass spectrometetry system with in-line UHPLC for Protoemics and Small Molecule data acquisition.
R statistical packages including Bioconductor for Transcriptomics/ Genomics level analysis and visualizations.