U of L Sequencing Technology Center
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Below you will find answers to the most common questions relating to our services and protocols. Please review the list of questions below – the answer you need may already be there. If you do not find the answer to your question here, please contact us
What services do you provide?
The UofL STC team provides all standard sample preparation workflows and sequencing methods associated with Illumina next-generation sequencing, PacBio SMRT sequencing, and 10X Genomics single-cell sequencing. We are also have expertise on the development of new genomics methods. Please contact our team for further details.
​
How do I request Services?
Please fill out the contact form below with your service name and other details. Our STC team will reach out with the appropriate next steps.
What equipment do you have?
The STC owns and operates MiSeq and NextSeq 2000 systems (Illumina), a Revio and Sequel IIe sytems (Pacific Biosciences), and an iX Chromium Controller and CytAssist (10X genomics). Ongoing assay development in the STC also uses the MinION 1kC system (Oxford Nanopore). If you need Facilities & Resources and/or Major Equipment documentation for funding application(s), please contact us below.
How can I get a letter of support?
We are happy to provide letters of support for grant applications. Please email your requests to seqtech@louisville.edu. Please include your name, type of application you are submitting, the title of your proposal, the core services you will be requesting, and a brief description of your project. Please allow 5-7 business days to ensure timely receipt.
​
How should I ship my samples?
All projects must be requested and approved through iLabs prior to shipment of samples. Sample tubes should be clearly marked and identifiable and placed in a secondary container, such as a box, bag, 50mL tube, etc. If available, overnight shipping on dry ice (you may use ice packs for DNA) via UPS is preferred. We highly recommend that you ship out on Monday through Wednesday so that packages can be delivered before the weekend. We do have routine delays with FedEx deliveries, so please keep that in mind by shipping early in the week with plenty of dry ice. Please ensure that a paper copy of your sample manifest indicating your assigned project number is included in your package. Ship samples to the following address:
Elizabeth Hudson/Melissa Smith
University of Louisville STC
580 South Preston Street
Baxter II, Room 228
Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 852-4996
​
What is your turnaround time?
We process samples on a first-come first-served basis, where receipt of your samples puts your project in our queue (some exceptions apply for single cell and spatial experiments). Our queue varies depending on which platform is requested, how many projects we have received in a given month, the size of the project, and the amount of hands-on time your project will require. In general, samples that arrive ready to be sequenced can get on our instruments within 1-3 weeks. For all other projects, we are happy to give you a more accurate estimated completion date after sample receipt.
Do you have STC operational questions not covered here? Please submit them in our Get In Touch form below and we'll do our best to add them to this FAQ page in a timely manner to help all of our customers!