Core Facilities and Services
VBI occupies more than 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) on the Virginia Tech campus, including over 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of laboratory space, designed for flexibility and to house computing and laboratory facilities. The institute occupies 5,000 square feet (460 m2) in Alexandria, Virginia, as part of Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region Operations. The facility is used to interact and build partnerships with corporate research entities, government agencies and other public and private-sector organizations.
VBI’s infrastructure includes core facilities that integrate high-throughput data generation and data analysis capabilities. VBI’s core facilities provide researchers with access to the "-omics" technology platforms and computational tools needed for analysis and interpretation of contemporary biomedial research and clinical data sets.
Core Computational Facility:
- Directed by Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh
- Three data centers occupying over 3,700 square feet (340 m2)
- Over 250 servers with over 10.5 TB of RAM, distributed over more than 2650 processor cores
- Storage areaa network with over 1 PB of disk and 3 PB of tape, expandable to 50 PB
- Gigabit Ethernet between the desktop and data centers and high-speed paths to Network Virginia and Internet2
- Support for the development and release of biomedical applications that demand High Performance Computing infrastructure
Core Laboratory Facility:
- Directed by Dr. Robert Settledge
- Resource dedicated to the development and application of various high-throughput technologies to aid in the discovery of biological macromolecules
- 6,500 square feet (600 m2) of laboratory space located at VBI’s main building on the Virginia Tech campus
- Wide range of technology platforms for the study of DNA (sequencing and genotyping), RNA (gene expression analysis), and proteins (proteomics)
- State-of-the-art Roche GS-FLX, Illumina and Ion Torent genome sequencers
- Affymetrix National Custom Array Center for custom microarray design, sample processing and analytical services
Data Analysis Core:
- Directed by Dr. Robert Settledge
- Turnkey service to analyze -omics and other data from raw data in to manuscript ready figures and text out
- Nexgen sequence assembly and annotation; microarray design, analysis and interpretation; mass spec data analysis; data QC; hypothesis generation; experimental design; statistical data analysis
Read more about this topic: Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
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