£15M boost for Scotland's gene research

Edinburgh Genomics is very excited to announce that we, with core support from the University of Edinburgh and in close collaboration with the University of Glasgow, have purchased an Illumina HiSeqX system. The official press release from the Universities (as the Scottish Genomes Partnership) and Illumina announcing the purchase is here.

The HiSeqX is Illumina’s latest genome sequencing instrument, focused on generating accurate complete human genomes. Edinburgh Genomics will be using the HiSeqX to support research in population genomics, in inherited disease, and in cancer.

With the purchase, Edinburgh Genomics will establish a new Clinical Genomics division, directed by Prof. Tim Aitman of the Edinburgh’s Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine. Along with the existing Genome Science division, under Mark Blaxter, this allows us to deliver world-leading genomics support to collaborators.

The new instruments complement our existing fleet of Illumina HiSeq2500 and MiSeq, and alongside our existing array, genotyping and bioinformatics capacities mean that we are able to offer a comprehensive range of integrated support to research and clinical practice - from bespoke small RNA sequencing to whole genome analysis across large cohorts of humans, and from variant discovery through sequencing to population genomics inference using data from custom SNP chips. The HiSeqX project will also capitalise on the existing world leading high performance computing within the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Genomics will continue to deliver high quality data and projects in the agricultural and environmental sciences with funding from NERC and BBSRC, and in non-genomic medical sequencing with funding from MRC.

Watch this space for more news of the Edinburgh Genomics HiSeq X project.