The Sequencing and Discovery Genomics team provides technical and collaborative support to Stowers Institute scientists who need to perform nucleic acid sequencing in the course of their research, including traditional and next-generation techniques.
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Members of the Sequencing and Discovery Genomics team consult with researchers to understand their unique needs, and provide expert guidance, tools, and assistance for project completion. They also participate in cutting-edge application and technology development, and provide education and training to researchers in multiple areas of genomics.
As Stowers was one of the first institutes in the Midwest region to offer Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) through Illumina platforms, the team has extensive experience with this technology. Rapid high-throughput, short-read sequencing is offered in-house using the Illumina NGS platforms. For projects requiring long-reads, outsourcing for PacBio sequencing is offered using trusted external partners. In addition to NGS, the team performs high-throughput plasmid preparation and Sanger sequencing.
Sequencing and Discovery Genomics team works very closely with the institute's Computation Biology team for data analysis.
Team Contact
Director, Sequencing and Discovery Genomics
Stowers Institute for Medical Research
With a B.S. degree in biology, Anoja Perera developed her skills in DNA sequencing, genomics applications, automation, and high throughput processing while working with Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., on the original Human and Mouse Genome Projects. After several years’ experience as group leader for sequencing at the Harvard-Partners Center of Genetics and Genomics in Cambridge, Mass., she joined the Stowers Molecular Biology group. Perera served as senior lab manager from 2006 until 2019 when she was appointed Director of the Sequencing and Discovery Genomics group. In this role, Perera seeks to advance research by making cutting-edge sequencing technologies available to the scientific staff. For many years, Perera has been an active member of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities and served on multiple committees including the organization’s Executive Board.
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing, or genome-wide DNA/protein interaction sequencing, DNA sequencing, whole transcriptome and single cell RNA sequencing are just some of the services we provide to Stowers scientists.
The Sequencing team at the Stowers Institute began offering Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to the Institute in September 2007 on the Illumina Genome Analyzer (GA). We have continuously updated and added sequencing instruments over the years to stay current with advances in technology and Institute demand. The current Illumina NGS sequencers available at Stowers are the NextSeq 2000, NextSeq 500 and MiSeq. We also have quick access to the NovaSeq 6000 through our neighbors at KUMC. Currently, we use Illumina sequencing systems for many different applications.
Interest in single cell sequencing applications has greatly increased in recent years as technologies have been developed to enable the study of heterogeneity that exists at the individual cell level. The Sequencing team offers single cell sequencing services mainly using 10X Genomics workflows.
Heatmap plot of gene expression data
The spatial organization of cells within a given tissue plays a crucial role in determining their overall function. Driven by the importance of understanding this organization, spatial transcriptomics is quickly coming to the forefront of new Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) applications with the ability to map cellular gene expression back to a specific location within the tissue. The Sequencing team has experience with two spatial transcriptomics workflows, namely Slide-seqv2 (a method published in Nature Biotech (2021) by Stickels et al) and Visium, a commercialized kit from 10X Genomics.
Sanger based, dye-terminator sequencing of plasmids, PCR products, BACs and Lambda DNA is performed using two ABI 3730xl 96-capillary DNA analyzers. The reactions are performed with modified versions of Applied Biosystems (Big Dye Terminator ver. 3.1) protocols. Unincorporated nucleotides are removed by exclusion columns from Edge Biosystems or by SPRI technology from Agencourt.
Our team members have extensive experience with automation and we have invested in cutting edge equipment to allow for processing of samples in both 96-well and 384-well format. We offer high throughput processing of samples to either feed into our Sanger Sequencing or Illumina sequencing. Often, reactions are miniaturized using specialized instruments that allow low volume pipetting to reduce costs significantly.
In The News
14 February 2023
From Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, new spatial technology, Slide-seq, offers high resolution due to the platform’s minute barcoded beads and limited diffusion.
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Press Release
24 January 2023
Researchers have discovered what prolonged physical inactivity may mean for humans many thousands of years down the road by studying cavefish.
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Press Release
26 October 2018
Researchers have identified "navigator" neurons that are key to setting up connections in the system responsible for the sense of smell.
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Morrison JA, McLennan R, Teddy JM, Scott AR, Kasemeier-Kulesa JC, Gogol MM, Kulesa PM. Development. 2021;148:dev19468. doi: 19410.11242/dev.199468.
Benham-Pyle BW, Brewster CE, Kent AM, Mann FG, Jr., Chen S, Scott AR, Box AC, Sánchez Alvarado A. Nat Cell Biol. 2021;23:939-952.
Multiple Niche Compartments Orchestrate Stepwise Germline Stem Cell Progeny Differentiation
Tu R, Duan B, Song X, Chen S, Scott A, Hall K, Blanck J, DeGraffenreid D, Li H, Perera A, Haug J, Xie T. Curr Biol. 2021;31:827-839 e823.
He X, Smith SE, Chen S, Li H, Wu D, Meneses-Giles PI, Wang Y, Hembree M, Yi K, Zhao X, Guo F, Unruh JR, Maddera LE, Yu Z, Scott A, Perera A, Wang Y, Zhao C, Bae K, Box A, Haug JS, Tao F, Hu D, Hansen DM, Qian P, Saha S, Dixon D, Anant S, Zhang D, Lin EH, Sun W, Wiedemann LM, Li L. Cell Rep. 2021;36:109674.doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109674.
Zeng A, Li H, Guo L, Gao X, McKinney S, Wang Y, Yu Z, Park J, Semerad C, Ross E, Cheng LC, Davies E, Lei K, Wang W, Perera A, Hall K, Peak A, Box A, Sánchez Alvarado A. Cell. 2018;173:1593-1608.e20.
