The Sample Processing Facility provides support to facilitate high throughput medical and epidemiological research. Specimens are efficiently processed to produce the highest-quality product possible for downstream experiments and/or analysis.
Contact
Sue List Armitage
Laboratory Manager
E Susan.List-Armitage@qimrberghofer.edu.au
Services Provided
- Pre-collection advice and assistance, including phlebotomy and collection kit advice
- Sample accession and data entry to LIMS (Laboratory Information System)
- Auditable LIMS storage and retrieval
- DNA extraction from whole blood, saliva and swabs
- RNA extraction from whole blood and saliva
- Plasma/serum isolation
- Isolation and cryo-preservation of white blood cells (buffy coat isolation)
- Sample normalisation and plating
- Tissue extraction
- FFPE nucleic extractions
- Body fluid nucleic extractions (amniotic fluid, urine, faeces, serum, semen)
- FTA card extractions
- Biorepository services
- Referral and transportation to external institutions
- Nucleic Acid quantification (Fluorescence and UV reading)
- LIMS reporting to investigators
Equipment
Quality assured nucleic extraction services using contemporary and reliable automation.
- Magnetic bead separation using Perkin Elmer instrumentation – 360 MSM and Prepito instruments with a capacity to extract volume ranges from 200µL to 10mL of sample.
- Column extraction – Qiagen QiaCube instrumentation
- Manual processing/salting out method
- Liquid Handling capacity – Eppendorf 5075, Beckman 4000
- Biotek Synergy H4, Thermo Fluoroscan, Biotek Powewave
Storage and Tracking
Fully auditable sample storage and tracking using:
- LIMS – QLIMS Laboratory Information Management System
- Barcoded sample storage with indelible labels (human readable and 2D barcode) in SDS format with flat-bed reader and automated lid removal (FluidX system)
- FreezerPro storage system
Service Integration
Our service can be fully integrated with other Scientific Services facilities, including DNA Sequencing, Genome Informatics, Proteomics and Histology. We take a collaborative, consultative approach with clients and will help with any aspect of your unique sample processing requirements. Our staff will work with you closely to design an implementation plan that will best fit your research needs.
Depending on project size, specific customer requirements and the biological background of the project, we can implement an extraction service solution using any one of our different extraction technologies or a combination of these technologies to an optimized fit-for-purpose solution.
The facility accepts work requests from all sources on a pay-for-service basis.
Requests are charged according to their type and origin. Charges differ between QIMR Berghofer staff and students, external academic clients and commercial clients.
Please contact Sue List-Armitage for further enquiries: Susan.List-Armitage@qimrberghofer.edu.au
Location
QIMR Berghofer CBCRC Building, Level 6
Staff
Laboratory Manager: Sue List Armitage, Susan.List-Armitage@qimrberghofer.edu.au
Senior Sample Processing Technician: Lisa Bowdler
Senior Sample Processing Technician: Nadine Schulz
Sample Processing Technician: Tu Parsons
