UMGC Launches Innovation Lab
The Innovation Lab at the University of Minnesota Genomics Center (UMGC) is a research group inside the UMGC that focuses on the development of novel genomics research tools. Led by Dr. Daryl Gohl, the Innovation Lab aims to establish an externally-funded research program by obtaining independent and collaborative grants from the NIH, NSF, and other agencies.
“Genomics is evolving at an extremely rapid pace,” says Dr. Kenny Beckman, the Director of the UMGC. “In just the past five years, we’ve seen the ascendance of long-read sequencing technologies and the emergence of single-cell sequencing. Through the establishment of the Innovation Lab, we are aiming to stay ahead of the curve and to actively contribute to the development of high-impact genomics technologies.”
A major area of focus for the Innovation Lab has been on improving the accuracy and expanding the scope, scale, and resolution of genomic measurements. This has included developing methods for improved microbiome profiling. In work funded by a grant from the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics and published in Nature Biotechnology, UMGC scientists uncovered mechanistic insights into several forms of error and bias in amplicon-based microbiome studies. They also discovered an unexpected phenomenon, editing of the amplification primers during PCR, which can be exploited to expand the set of taxa that can be detected in microbiome samples.
Recently, the Innovation Lab spearheaded an effort to investigate size bias in Illumina sequencing. With support from a Translational Product Development Fund grant from the University of Minnesota’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Innovation Lab scientists developed a new method (REcount) that allows highly accurate sequencing-based quantification of engineered constructs such as plasmids. Their recent paper in Genome Biology describes the use of REcount to examine differences in clustering due to molecule length across different Illumina sequencers. “Size bias in Illumina sequencing is something that people have known about for a long time, however up until now no one has measured this quantitatively” says Gohl, Group Leader of the Innovation Lab and Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development. “We found surprisingly large differences in size bias between different sequencing platforms and identified instances where it could affect the underlying biological measurements.”
“This is the sort of project that could really only be done in a place like the UMGC,” said Ben Auch, an Innovation Lab Researcher. “We are in a unique position at the interface of the scientific discoveries and the technology.
The UMGC Innovation lab has also been active in technology commercialization, with several pending patent applications on genomics technologies and through the formation of a microbiome analysis company, CoreBiome. “As a native of Central Minnesota, it is very important to me that our work benefits the state,” says Dr. Gohl. He hopes that ongoing work on the zebra mussel genome project will do just that and aid in the development of control strategies for this damaging invasive species.
“Our ability to contribute scientifically pays huge dividends to the UMGC,” said Dr. Beckman. “From developing new technologies, to improving the quality of our measurements, to increasing awareness of our services, to providing University of Minnesota researchers with early access to emerging technologies. The Innovation Lab is furthering the mission of the UMGC on multiple fronts.”