The field of NGS in particular highlights the diversity of requirements in modern biodiversity research and the highly dynamic nature of costs and methods used. In the long term, the analysis of entire genomes will become increasingly important, and NGS methods are also significant in or for the analysis of selected subgenomes or transcriptomes. In this area, the LOEWE-TBG, which was approved in 2017, complements Senckenberg’s laboratory infrastructure and will be integrated into the company-wide laboratory concept.
In the course of the construction work for the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt and with the move to the new premises, the (laboratory) infrastructure at the Frankfurt site has been significantly improved. Important infrastructures used across locations include: the SBiK-F Laboratory Center (SBiK-F), the Mesocosm Hall (SBiK-F, currently no longer Cat. III but Cat. II), the Isotope Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (Joint Stable Isotope Facility, SBiK-F with Goethe University Frankfurt), the LA-ICPMS geochronology laboratory (SNSD), the molecular genetics laboratory with the aDNA facility (SNSD), micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy (SF, SaM, SHEP), as well as X-ray and virtual 3D examination of fossils (SF, SHEP), the data and modeling center (SBiK-F), and the DNA archive (SF).
Similar to the molecular laboratories, the other infrastructures are not only used within the framework of in-house collaborations, but also in cooperation with universities and other Leibniz Institutes, as envisaged by the objectives of the 2016-2020 Pact for Research and Innovation.
Following the successful acquisition of a computed tomography system (SHEP), a “CT facility” (working title) operated jointly with the University of Tübingen is scheduled to go into operation in 2020 as a further “joint lab.”
NGS techniques have become established worldwide for systematic phylogenetic questions. The challenge is to provide methodological know-how in the form of standardized procedures (“pipelines” or “workflows”) – especially for the use of collection material. The large amounts of data generated by NGS require increased bioinformatic expertise. This is where the data and modeling center, LOEWE-TBG, but also cooperation with universities (e.g., Goethe University) play an important role. The data and modeling center provides infrastructure for data storage, improves the visibility and accessibility of Senckenberg data, and forms a bioinformatic-scientific interface for optimizing the Senckenberg databases and their use.
