The BRC makes high-end biotechnologiesavailable to all researchers, provides awide range of instruments and services,and supports research and education.

Seeing DNA and Beyond: Biotechnology Resource Center (BRC)

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Busting through the UnseeableWhat do you do if you want to see ghosts?Call Ghostbusters! But what if you want to see infinitesimally small structures in aplant or animal? Call the BRC, the CornellUniversity Biotechnology Resource Center(formerly called the CLC, the Life SciencesCore Laboratories Center).

Illuminating genetic variation, proteinmodifications, cells and tissue structures,and many other fundamental characteristicsof life, the BRC’s cutting-edge biotechnologiesenable exciting and productive ways ofseeing. These technologies are critical tounderstanding development, disease, andinteractions between organisms and theenvironment.

The BRC’s laboratories offer an exceptionalopportunity for creative applications withthe potential for breakthrough discoveries. The center is composed of six core facilitylaboratories focused on genomics, proteomics,imaging, bioinformatics, bio-IT, and advancedtechnology assessment. The BRC’s array ofstate-of-the-art tools and technologies areavailable to researchers at Cornell and otherinstitutions. Located on the Cornell campusin Ithaca, the BRC incorporates fee-for-service research, technology testing anddevelopment, and educational components.

Investigators spanning many life sciencedisciplines and other fields utilize the BRC’stechnologies and expertise. In the past year,628 investigator groups used the facilities,including researchers from 79 departments inseven Cornell colleges and from 129 insti-tutions in 38 states and 15 other countries.The center expects many new researchers andresearch projects in the coming years.

Reviewing protocols and planning experi-ments carefully to leverage the technologiesis critical, given the broad range of capa-bilities and rapidly developing applicationsof the instruments. Accordingly, the BRCoffers coordinated project consultationswith the directors and staff of all the coreservices during the design, data production,and analysis phases of investigators’research projects.

Reading the Letters in the Book of LifeReading the sequence of the basic compo-nents of DNA is like reading the letters in

the Book of Life. The BRC Genomics Facility’scutting-edge DNA sequencing technologiesprovide instruments and services that enableinvestigators to view genes and genomesin very fine detail. The facility supports awide range of research, including studiesof the composition and organization ofwhole genomes, genetic variation betweenindividuals and between species, the roleof genetic mutations in development anddisease, and analyses of gene expressionand regulation.

The core’s resources include sequencing,microarrays, and genotyping technologies.New DNA sequencing technologies areemerging at a dizzying rate, and thegenomics core has been actively acquiringand implementing the latest sequencinginstrumentation. The new generation ofsequencing technologies enables manynew research applications, including fastand cost-effective whole genome and targeted region sequencing of humans and other organisms.

In the past year, the genomics core analyzed about 500,000 samples from 500investigator groups and generated about10 trillion bases of DNA sequence.

Seeing the Building Blocks of LifeThe BRC Proteomics and Mass SpectrometryFacility provides tools for identifying andcharacterizing proteins and other smallmolecules that are the building blocks oflife. The facility has mass spectrometers andother analytical tools for identifying andquantifying proteins and small-moleculemetabolites, for detecting chemical modifi-cations that can affect protein function,and for quantitative proteomics.

The instruments in the proteomics coreenable large numbers of proteins fromcomplex biological samples to be detectedand analyzed with high resolution andaccuracy. Recent research projects includestudies of regulatory networks and theassembly of protein complexes and signalpathways in bacteria, plants, and animals,as well as projects on the role of proteininteractions and modifications in infertility,diabetes, and cancer.

A Picture Paints a Thousand WordsThe BRC Imaging Facility provides manyways of seeing, from real-time movies ofthe heart beating in a living mouse, toimages of paper-thin structures lyingunderneath the skin of a tomato, todetailed three-dimensional digital recon-structions of the exoskeleton of trilobitesembedded in fossils that are hundreds ofmillions of years old.

The imaging core has tools for directlyviewing structures ranging in scale fromsubcellular units like chromosomes andmitochondria, to whole cells and tissues and organs, to whole organisms. Imageplatforms include• transmitted and fluorescence lightmicroscopy

• confocal and stereo microscopy• luminescence and fluorescence imaging• multiphoton microscopy• flow cytometry analysis• micro and nanoscale x-ray microscopecomputed tomography (CT)

• high-resolution ultrasound

Imaging instruments, like the micro andnano CT, are also used to support researchin fields outside of the life sciences—for

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The BRC Imaging Facility provides many ways of seeing, from real-time movies of the heartbeating in a living mouse, to images of paper-thin structures lying underneath the skin of a tomato, to detailed three-dimensional digitalreconstructions of the exoskeleton of trilobitesembedded in fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old.

Photos in Outreach: Biotechnology Resource Center and Frank DiMeo unless otherwise noted

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Photos in Outreach: Biotechnology Resource Center and Frank DiMeo unless otherwise noted

3D visualization of blood vessels within a dog heart, generated by a micro-scale computed tomography (CT) instrument (GE eXplore CT120) in the BRC Imaging Facility (M. Riccio, F. Fenton, R. Gilmour, Jr.)

3D visualization of the internal structure of a Gar fish, generated by a micro-scale computed tomography(CT) instrument (GE eXplore CT120) in the BRC Imaging Facility (A. McCune, M. Riccio)

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The core staff has developed and supports research databases for national and international basic and clinical research projects.

example, in studies that need to see theinner structure of nanofabricated devices.

Supporting a Fire Hose of DataThe BRC Bioinformatics Facility (also calledthe Computational Biology Service Unit)supports analysis of the massive amount ofdata generated by the BRC core facilities.It provides large-scale computationalresources, a diverse array of softwareanalysis tools, and extensive expertise intheir use. The BRC bioinformatics core is a Microsoft Institute for High-PerformanceComputing—one of only 10 worldwide.

The bioinformatics core has three compu-tational clusters with a combined total ofmore than 1,200 processers and 500 nodesto support data analysis. This infrastructuresupports projects in genomics, quantitativegenetics, proteomics, and structural biology.

One particular area of expertise is thedevelopment and management of large-scaleresearch project databases that integratemany types of basic research data, such as genomics and proteomics informationjoined with phenotyping data.

The core staff has developed and supportsresearch databases for national and interna-tional basic and clinical research projects.The facility also created and supportsBioHPC, a high performance computingsuite of more than 50 life sciences softwareapplications, and maintains the BioHPCLaboratory for biologists who want tolearn the Linux operating system and howto do large-scale genomic data analysis.

The data deluge witnessed at the BRCBioinformatics Facility—a veritable firehose of information—promises an exciting

and complex new era of life scienceresearch, so the facility gives high priorityto training and education workshops.

At the Heart of the BRCThe BRC Bio-Information Technology (Bio-IT) Facility creates and maintains theinformation technology infrastructure thatenables the operations of all the BRC’scores. This vital infrastructure includes aLaboratory Information ManagementSystem (LIMS) for tracking and processingsample submissions, instrument use, datastorage, and data transfer to investigators.The Bio-IT Facility also provides high-endIT support for life sciences research groupsand academic departments at Cornell.

Kicking the Tires As new sophisticated analysis technologiesare developed and become commercially

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Genomics Peter Schweitzer

Proteomics and Mass SpectrometrySheng Zhang

Imaging Rebecca Williams and Mark Riccio

Bioinformatics Facility Jaroslaw Pillardy and Qi Sun

Bio-IT FacilityJames VanEe

Advanced Technology AssessmentGeorge Grills

Jocelyn RoseDirector, Institute of Biotechnology

Linda Carr Executive Director, Institute of Biotechnology

George GrillsDirector, Operations

BRC Core Facility Directors

available, their implementation can be amajor headache. Researchers want accessto cutting-edge instrumentation, but alltoo often the latest exciting piece oftechnology is far from “plug and play.”Many wrinkles need to be shaken out.

The Advanced Technology Assessment(ATA) Facility works closely with theother BRC core facilities and withCornell faculty to identify the emergingtechnologies needed to keep scientistsat the cutting edge of research, to bringthese instruments to campus for testing,and to acquire funding for their purchase.

Once the new instruments are installed,the ATA core helps to “kick the tires,”optimizing existing methods and developing novel applications for theseplatforms. The goal of this core is to

expedite early-phase optimization andto get to the point of high throughputdata generation as smoothly and rapidlyas possible.

Championing Research and EducationSharing the Expertise. Scientists fromother national and international institu-tions visit the BRC to learn about newlife sciences shared resource technologies.These scientists often hope to start abiotechnology center at their homeinstitution. Scientists and graduate students visiting the BRC facilities forshort tours and extended stays havecome from as far as Niger, Brazil, SriLanka, India, Ghana, Indonesia, Spain,and China.

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Multidisciplinary Collaboration andFaculty Recruitment. The BRC facilitates collaborations between departmental disci-plines and between institutions. The corecenter’s broad range of high-technologyfacilities, menu of instruments and services,and support of multidisciplinary research alsoplays an important role in the recruitmentand retention of faculty.

Advancing the Professional. To facilitatebroad and effective use of their high-endinstruments, all BRC core facilities organizeregular educational workshops and seminars.The BRC bioinformatics core, for example,hosts a genomics bioinformatics educationalworkshop series that covers the practicalaspects of using computational biologyapplications in HPC environments. Faculty,postdocs, students, and laboratory researchstaff attend these educational workshops.The ATA core, as another example, sponsorsa university-wide Life Sciences AdvancedTechnology Seminar series that has presen-tations and discussions on emergingbiotechnologies.

To inform the Cornell community aboutthe BRC’s facilities and to promote regionalsharing of these research resources andservices, lectures are posted online and arepresented at local, regional, national, andinternational meetings. BRC core directorsalso give presentations in undergraduateand graduate courses and at departmentalseminars.

The core center’s broadrange of high-technologyfacilities, menu ofinstruments and services,and support of multi-disciplinary researchplays an important rolein the recruitment andretention of faculty.

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Data generated in the BRC Imaging Facility: [left to right starting with top row] (a,b) ovarydevelopment in fruit flies (Erin Kelleher, D. Barbashlab); (c) cells growing in a microfabricated channel(Mandy Esch, T. Stokol lab); (d) green fluorescentprotein in epidermal cells of a plant leaf;

(e) endoplasmic reticulum in plant epidermal cells(biology class lab, M. Hanson); (f) cells and subcel-lular structures; (g) dividing cells in a fruit flyembryo (Byron Williams, M. Goldberg lab); (h)cells and subcellular structures; (i) cells withnuclei (blue), plasma membranes (green), and

mitochondria (red) (R. Williams and W. Zipfel); (j) algae and zooplankton; (k) ovary developmentin fruit fly (Shamoni Maheshwari, D. Barbash lab);(l) dispersion of oils in water for food production(Wen Chyan Tsai, S. Rizvi lab)

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A Technology Fest. The BRC organizes the annual Cornell Life Sciences ResearchResources Expo, which is held on theIthaca and New York City campuses. Thisannual technology fest includes a publicseminar and poster session, with presenta-tions by life science cores from all of theCornell campuses.

NERDS. The BRC sponsors the annualNortheast Regional Life Sciences CoreDirectors (NERDS) meeting, which is a forumfor topics of interest to biotechnologycores. This meeting has grown enormouslypopular over the last few years: 158 coredirectors from 60 institutions and 21 statesattended the NERDS 2011 meeting, whichwas held on the Ithaca campus.

Reaching Out to Educate. The BRC helpssupport outreach programs for teaching,training, and learning at the high school,undergraduate, and graduate levels,

including a training program for highschool biology teachers. The center is alsoinvolved in programs that promote andbroaden the participation of women andunderrepresented minorities in science.

The BRC OrganizationThe BRC is administered by the CornellUniversity Institute of Biotechnology andis part of a New York State Center forAdvanced Technology (CAT) called theCenter for Life Science Enterprise. EachBRC core has a facility director and a fac-ulty advisory board that provides scientificguidance.

The Cornell University BiotechnologyResource Center provides innovative waysof seeing fundamental characteristics ofliving organisms. Looking forward, theBRC will be key to keeping Cornell at theforefront of a wide range of dynamic andrapidly evolving life sciences research.

George GrillsDirector of Operations Biotechnology Resource Center

Jocelyn RoseDirector, Institute of BiotechnologyAssociate Professor of Plant Biology

www.biotech.cornell.edu/cores

The BRC helps support outreach programs for teaching, training, and learning at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels,including a training program for high school biology teachers.

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