Laboratory services

Our laboratory services are world class with custom designed laboratory management systems to allow us to bring any test under our strict quality control systems.

NATA accredited tests

We were awarded NATA research accreditation for the procedures listed below in October 2008:

Nucleic acid extraction
Storage of biological samples including extracted nucleic acid
cDNA synthesis
Amplified nucleic acid cloning
PCR amplification of genomic and cDNA
Agarose gel electrophoresis of genomic and PCR amplified DNA
DNA sequencing
DNA sequence editing
Viral sequencing
HLA sequence-based typing
Isolation and storage of peripheral blood mononuclear cells
ELISpot assays

ASHI accreditation

Our aim to achieve ASHI accreditation began in late 2010 and our full accreditation started in January 2011. This covers all our procedures involving human HLA testing. Our expertise in this area has grown from our long running association with the Department of Immunology and Immunogentics at Royal Perth Hospital who pioneered molecular sequence based typing for HLA.

Services

DNA sequencing

Sanger Sequencing on ABI 3730XL

We offer a service for sequencing DNA on our 3730 XL system. We accept any number of samples but costs will vary based on the number of sequence reactions you require performed. We can perform the complete reaction or just run your prepared samples.

Max cost per sample to run the prepared sample only is $3
Max cost per sample to perform the sequencing reaction and run the sample is $6

Discounts are available for large volumes, guaranteed workloads and plate ready formats; please enquire. We specialize in large volume low cost sequencing using our extensive automation systems which guarantees sample to data integrity.

Parallel sequencing on Roche 454 FLX

We offer a full service for sequencing on the Roche 454 FLX platform. We were the first to offer titanium chemistry on the FLX in Australia and were selected as the National training centre when titanium was released and will continue to bring you the latest advances as soon as they become available. We can assist with project design and perform all the up-front library preparation. Each project is assessed independently and costed appropriately, please enquire for costs of this service.

To September 2011 we have performed over 20 successful runs of next generation sequencing for internal and external clients. We are also able to run smaller projects on the Roche GS junior which can cut the costs for small projects.

It is important to remember that the cost of sequencing is not simply the cost of generating the data. The largest component cost wise is most often the bioinformatics required to put together your data. With the longer reads of the Roche platform the costs associated with assemblies are reduced as well as analysis time and importantly little data is lost due to imprecise mapping.

High throughput liquid handling

We are able to adapt almost all laboratory assays to a high throughput format using our extensive robotic capabilities and sample tracking systems. Our existing expertise are in molecular assays from extracting nucleic acids through to PCR and Sequencing technologies to cellular immunology assays and flow cytometry.

Our laboratory quality management systems ensure rapid accurate results consistently. We are able to assist with assay designs training and protocol writing and integration with our existing systems.