Zebrafish Aquaria
The University of Pittsburgh houses one of the largest zebrafish facilities in the world. Over 11,000 tanks are located within the 5th floor of BST3. This state of the art aquarium, was designed by UPitt and Aquaneering Inc. Designed as two systems operating side-by-side, the facility can support up to half a million adult zebrafish in one 4600 sq ft room. The tanks are self-cleaning and approximately 40,000 liters of water is continuously monitored to ensure quality.
The facility will provide ample space for multiple independent large- scale research projects to run simultaneously. The system was fully operational in July 2006 and currently supports researchers from several departments and disciplines at the University. Members from the Department of Developmental Biology are using the zebrafish to understand how organs such as the liver, kidney and heart develop in the embryo.
Why Zebrafish?
- Small and easy to maintain
- Transparent embryos allow for visualization of every cell during development
- Rapid development, within 48 hours post fertilization the larva is free swimming and all the major organs such as brain, visual system, heart, kidneys are formed.
- Vertebrate animal model - high conservation in the genetic code between human and zebrafish.
Next Generation DNA Sequencing Facility
High throughput DNA sequencing with massively parallel sequencing technology is rapidly becoming a mainstay in present day biological research, whether it is in basic science, translational medicine or clinical investigations. Our department runs an AB SOLiD4 sequencing system to support the next generation sequencing needs of our investigators. This sequencing system will soon be replaced with the new SOLiD 5500xl sequencer, a higher capcity and more flexible system with two FlowCells, each with six independent run lanes. Together with the recently developed nanobeads, throughput per run will increase to 300Gb (4.8 B tags), with run time for mate pair libraries reduced to 7 days and with read lengths increasing from 50 x 50 to 60 x 60 per mate-pair, and with accuracy of 99.99%. In addition to the AB SOLiD instrument, the Sequencing Facility is also equipped with the Covaris S2 sonicator, which provides uniform DNA shearing critically important for library preparation via a computer generated, focused acoustics in an isothermal process, the AB Easy Bead System comprising the Easy Bead emulsifier, amplifier and enricher, which together provide full automation of bead preparation, saving time and ensuring sample-to-sample reproducibility.