BAF - SR Component

BIOMOLECULAR ANALYSIS FACILITY – PROJECT SUMMARY The Biomolecular Analysis Facility (BAF) provides a centralized setting for a diverse suite of services and instrumentation in the `omics' (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics) and molecular interaction and provides comprehensive bioinformatics support services such as pipelines and data analysis tools. The facility is divided into sections that interact and support each other – Proteomics, Genomic Sciences, Lipidomics/Metabolomics, Shared Instrumentation, and Bioinformatics. The resource serves University of Virginia Cancer Center (UVACC) Members by providing expertise in experimental design, sample processing, cost-effective data collection, data analysis, and support for manuscripts and grants. UVACC investigators have access locally to a wide variety of services that can determine qualitative and quantitative changes at the cellular level, including Next Generation Sequencing, including bulk DNA/RNA-Seq, Single cell/nuclei RNA and ATAC-seq, third generation long-read sequencing, quantitative gene expression, genotyping, complex protein mixtures, biomarker profiling, post-translational modifications, molecular interactions and kinetics, lipids, metabolites, and drug analysis. The consolidated organization of the facility allows UVACC Members to perform many of these experiments on the same or related samples. One key area of focus within the BAF is providing access to advanced instrumentation and experiments that meet UVACC needs. Within the past two years, the facility added two mass spectrometers in the areas of proteomics and metabolomics and two higher capacity NGS instruments. As the majority of BAF users are UVACC Members, the interaction with these investigators is the driving force for acquiring new instrumentation and developing new techniques. The UVACC Executive Committee and Office of Research Core Administration (ORCA – within School of Medicine (SOM) Dean's Office) work closely together to foster this environment. To that end, the SOM provides direct budget support to the BAF every year (~30% total budget), which together with the UVACC co-pay, provides UVACC Members with highly effective services at remarkably competitive prices.