The Edinburgh Genome Foundry is a research facility specialised in the assembly of large DNA fragments using a highly automated platform. We build genetic constructs for academic and industrial customers to equip cells or whole organisms with new or improved functionalities. We work on projects as diverse as programming stem cells for use in personalised medicine, vaccine development, gene therapy, living biosensors and optical tools for basic biological research. DNA Design and Project Planning Our team will help you design and plan your next high-throughput project, using our expertise in lab automation, DNA design and cloning strategies. DNA Assembly We deliver high-throughput projects involving long constructs (>5kbp), constructs comprising large numbers of genetic parts, or combinatorial libraries. Our platform is agnostic on the host chassis; to date, we have assembled constructs for use in bacteria, yeast and mammalian cells. We have worked on a great variety of projects from stem cell engineering, gene therapies to viral vaccines (and see here ). Contact us to talk through your ideas. As a guide, we charge £65 per construct for researchers. The cost of synthesis of the DNA parts is not included. Industry rates are negotiable. Cell Phenotyping We have a range of cell phenotyping assays including qPCR, high-throughput micro-fermentation as well as kinetic analysis. We also have access to proteomics and metabolomics capabilities (via our sister facility –Edinomics ) and for laser-enabled cell transformation and selection (via our unique LEAP system). Laboratory Equipment and Protocols Automation solutions allow for reliable, high throughput, and cost-effective execution of repetitive tasks. We offer a wide range of automated molecular biology protocols as a service. Researchers can also be trained on selected equipment (e.g. acoustic dispenser, high throughput fermenter or replicating robot) to accelerate their research. Protocols available include: DNA transformation and purification qPCR Replica plating Colony picking Mini-fermentations DNA Design and Lab Automation Software The EGF is committed to developing and sharing industry-grade software for DNA Design, Laboratory Automation and Synthetic Biology. We host an open-access collection of web applications (https://cuba.genomefoundry.org) with over 20 functionalities for sequence optimization, cloning simulation, generation of robotic picklists, and more. We also offer a suite of open-source software libraries trusted by computational biologists and biofoundry engineers around the world (https://github.com/Edinburgh-Genome-Foundry). General enquiries email egf@ed.ac.uk. For more information, please visit the Edinburgh Genome Foundry. This article was published on 2024-04-02
