Services we provide

The Meharry Bioinformatics Core was established in order to provide compute resources, support and training to the MMBC basic and biomedical research community.  Our goal is to ensure that these scientists across the College are able to effectively exploit existing and emerging computational technologies, especially related to genomics scale data-sets.  We provide the following list of services in an attempt to reach these goals:

Consultation:

Meharry Bioinformatics Core personnel provide consulting to enable investigators to frame research questions in genomics terms and identify bioinformatics solutions to those questions. Core personnel are then available to facilitate these solutions which may involve developing databases and software tools as well as provide training and support in the use of these tools.

Grant preparation:

Meharry Bioinformatics Core personnel enable grant submission by helping to identify genomic and bioinformatics approaches to investigators’ research problems, framing the questions in genomics terms and providing letters of support that indicate sufficient expertise and tools exist to successfully complete the research indicated.

Data Analysis: 

Whenever possible, data analysis is  approached as a training opportunity.  However, there are times when this is undesirable either due to the complexity of the data (and analysis options) or the wishes of the investigator.  In these instances, we do perform data analysis but request the participation of the investigator (particularly in the case of microarray data) as a fundamental understanding of the biology and experiment that can only be supplied by the person who has done the work is required for an appropriate analysis.

Identify and make resources available:

As bioinformatics/genomics needs arise in the research community at MMBC or in individual laboratories, core personnel will help identify and make available resources that will address these needs. We will also train persons to use these resources effectively.

Education and Training: 

Core personnel provide training primarily in one-on-one or small group (from a specific lab for example) settings as this has been determined empirically to be the most effective.   We also provide monthly workshops for specific bioinformatics packages or approaches to larger groups as needs are identified that can be addressed in this format.  Talks have been and continue to be presented to departments (and faculty meetings) to inform investigators of the value of bioinformatics to their research and the services that are provided by the Bioinformatics Facility.

Other needs...contact us!

  We are always happy to discuss science and in particular genomic approaches to research questions!!  We can help with many things not outlined on this page but we can't tell you unless you ask. If we are unable to help you with your specific problem, we can usually refer you to someone who can.