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NHLBI Proteomics Center
> Keck Laboratory Description
Description of the W.M. Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory at Yale
University
(3/20/03)
Director: Kenneth Williams,
Ph.D.
Associate Director: John Flory, Ph.D.
The
Keck Laboratory
was founded in 1980 by Kenneth Williams, Ph.D. to bring a wide range of
state-of-the-art genomic and proteomic biotechnologies within reach of hundreds
of Yale and non-Yale investigators whose research programs would
otherwise not benefit from the highly sophisticated and expensive
instrumentation upon which biochemical and biomedical research is increasingly
dependent. To maximize its positive impact, the Keck Laboratory strives to
provide as many high quality services to as many investigators as possible.
Although priority is always given to requests from Yale and HHMI investigators,
the decision to also accept requests from scientists around the world ensures
that when demand by Yale and HHMI investigators (which is highly variable) for a
particular service is less than is needed to maintain maximal throughput, a
backlog of requests will be available to maintain high productivity. This
policy, which benefits all users of this Laboratory, minimizes operating
costs and maximizes the contribution of the Keck Laboratory and of Yale
University to biochemical and biomedical research. In keeping with this 23-year
guiding philosophy, the majority of analyses and syntheses are provided on a
non-collaborative basis - as it simply would not be feasible for this unit to
collaborate simultaneously with even a small fraction of the >1,100
investigators who utilize its services annually. Throughout its history, the
Keck Laboratory has been close to self-supporting in that it has recovered 80%
of its salary, supply, and instrumentation costs from service charges. In
addition, 18% of its historical budget has derived from grant and contract
support with <2% of its support deriving from Yale University, YSM and
individual YSM departments. With 45 full time staff, including 12 with Ph.D. and
6 with M.S. level degrees, and >75 major instrument systems purchased at a cost
of >$7 million dollars, the Keck Laboratory is one of the largest academic
biotechnology resource laboratories of its kind in the world.
The 12 individual Resources that
are the Keck Laboratory provide a wide variety of genomic and proteomic
syntheses and analyses that include DNA microarray and chip technology, oligo
and peptide synthesis, DNA and protein sequencing, biophysical analysis of
proteins and other biopolymers (including size exclusion HPLC/laser light
scattering and stopped flow fluorescence/absorbance), biostatistical analyses,
and mass spectrometry. DNA microarray technology is one of the newer genomic
technologies offered and the Keck Lab now has available 1" x 3" glass slide
microarrays that allow the relative level of expression of 27,000 Arabidopsis,
15,000 mouse, 5,000 rat or 17,000 human genes and ESTs to be interrogated in
parallel in a single experiment. Indicative of the increasing trend towards
higher throughput technologies, the Keck Lab opened a highly automated protein
identification service that starts with investigators submitting
protein-containing, polyacrylamide gel bands or spots in 96 well plates. In 2002
the Keck Lab also opened a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Genotyping
Resource with a maximum throughput of >20,000 SNP genotypes/day. Mass
spectrometric-based technologies being developed include one that is directed at
finding naturally occurring peptide/protein "biomarkers" in serum and other
biological samples to hopefully allow a wide range of human diseases to be more
accurately diagnosed (particularly at an earlier stage than is now possible),
classified and understood; and both 2D gel and mass spectrometric-based protein
profiling services to enable "genome level" comparison of the relative level of
expression of thousands of proteins in whole cell extracts. This latter effort
will be substantially strengthened by the recent awarding of a $1.4 million
dollar NIH High End Instrumentation Grant to the Keck Laboratory to fund the
purchase of an FT-ICR mass spectrometer and by the recent award of an $18
million NIH contract to establish the
Yale/NHLBI Proteomics
Center which will be strongly supported by the Keck Lab.
As suggested by the number of
services it provides, the Keck Lab is making an important contribution to
biological and biomedical research which extends far beyond Yale University. In
calendar year 2002 the Keck Lab provided 215,383 genomic and proteomic analyses
and syntheses to 422 Yale and 692 non-Yale investigators at more than 350
institutions in 20 countries. To enable the Keck Lab to continue to expand to
meet the 40% average annual increase (since 1990) in demand for services, the
Yale School of Medicine is providing an additional 4,500 ft2 of space
which will bring the total Keck Lab space to approximately 20,000 ft2.
To help its users take maximum advantage of its Resources, the
Keck web pages
provide extensive background information on the biotechnologies it offers and on
interpreting the resulting data. That this effort is succeeding is suggested by
the web log which indicates that in January, 2003 the Keck web pages received
750,000 requests from 5,600 distinct hosts.
As judged by extensive use of the
Keck Laboratory by non-Yale investigators and by comments like the following by
the NIH Study Panel that reviewed a recent Shared Instrumentation Grant
(RR151837 in 2001), the Keck Laboratory provides a very high level of service to
its users and is dedicated to continuing to do so far into the future:
"This is an outstanding
proposal from a premiere core laboratory at Yale." "The Keck Biotechnology
Resource Laboratory is arguably one of the best facilities of its kind in the
nation in terms of support and expertise. The large number of researchers who
annually make use of this facility, both from the Yale campus and nationwide, is
testament to the significance of the facility for crucial support of biomedical
and biotechnology research."
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