My group is part of the Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit, a service unit within the ARS. Our unit has 4 principal investigators:

  • Dr. Brian Scheffler the Research Leader for our unit directs the sequencing lab in Stoneville, MS. He is also the former Chief Scientific information officer for ARS.
  • Dr. Amanda Hulse-Kemp works on complex polyplid genomes in Raliegh, NC.
  • Dr. Justin Vaughn works on crop genetics in Athens, GA.
  • Me

As a service unit we help ARS scientists in several ways

  1. Consulting. As an ARS scientist you can contact any of us to set up a time to get help planning your project. There is not cost associated consulting for ARS scientists.
  2. ARS Collaboration. We try to collaborate with as many ARS scientists as we can on projects where our expertise adds value. IF you would like to collaborate. contact the Investigator that seems most relevant and we can discuss your project and set up a unit wide teleconference to see if we can help. If we can help the unit will draft a scope ow work document and begin the collaboration.
  3. Sequencing Services. The Unit runs a number of sequencing platforms including Illumina Hiseq 3000, Illumina Miseq, Illumina Nextseq, Pacbio RSII, PacBio Sequel, and 10X Genomics Chromium. We do sequencing at cost for ARS projects.

We collaborate outside ARS

  1. External Collaborations. We can act as co-PI’s or collaborators for many grant calls from NSF and NIFA.
  2. CRADA. We can work with industry partners through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements. Other mechanisms exist too including funding by Commodity Boards.
  3. NACA. Through these agreements we sometimes fund positions at universities to work on specific projects.