New Mexico Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NM-INBRE) INBRE
The National Center for Genome Resources' NM-INBRE program, under the direction of Faye D. Schilkey, P.I., was recently renewed at $3.6M for 5 years through 2014. The NM-INBRE program consists of NCGR and eight universities and colleges in the state of New Mexico (NMSU, Highlands, UNM, UNM Gallup, NM Tech, Dine College, San Juan College, and Eastern NM). It has been supported by the National Center for Research Resources and currently the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, both divisions of the National Institutes of Health. NCGR's role in the network is to educate and enhance the capabilities and resources of New Mexico's biomedical researchers, students and educators by providing tools and technologies to help improve their efforts and success in winning federal research dollars. With the advent of NCGR's next-generation sequencing and analysis capabilities, NCGR's role was extended in the new award to be the NM-INBRE Sequencing and Informatics Core. The Illumina CS-Pro certified lab houses the Illumina HiSeq and GAIIx, and the PacBio RS for sequencing and Illumina’s BeadExpress and iScan for genotyping. Sequencing services include whole genome and transcriptome shotgun sequencing, ChIP, small RNA, long-insert paired end, ultra-low sample input (1ng) DNA, and targeted exome sequencing. NCGR provides follow-up informatics analysis to these experiments including de novo assembly (transcriptome and genome), read count-based expression and SNP reports, and differential expression analysis. This continuing program now has an incredible leveraged capacity for transforming research in the state, regional and national INBRE networks, and preparing the next generation of biomedical scientists for the era of personalized medicine. Highlights include grammer through graduate school informatics education, NCGR's annual bioinformatics, science and technology symposium (with internationally renowned speakers and an opportunity for students to present their work), and finally, facilitating numerous INBRE pilot study, proposal and publication collaborations. NCGR's work also includes an outreach internship program for students at 4-year undergraduate institutions, and tribal and community colleges in the state to increase matriculation in graduate biomedical research programs. A good portion of interns return as full-time employees after graduation including Peter Ngam who was an intern from NM Highlands University and now is the Center's lab manager.
Visit www.nminbre.org for more information.
