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Next Generation Sequencing: Genome Center Video Tour
A new video, Next Generation Sequencing: Genome Center Video Tour, from HHMI Professor Sarah Elgin of Washington University in St. Louis, is aimed at informing biology students about new advances in genome sequencing technologies and applications. It can be used with advanced high school students or at the undergraduate or beginning graduate levels. The video contains interviews with three directors of the Washington University Genome Center. The interviews are interspersed with video shots and still images of the machines in action and animations to explain the chemistry of next generation sequencing. The video has four parts: an introduction, which presents an overview and explains the uses of new sequencing technologies; descriptions and comparisons of the Illumina and 454 sequencing technologies, which can produce sequence data more quickly and cost effectively than earlier machines; and a discussion of current genome sequencing projects and their implications. The video, plus the script, a glossary, PowerPoint presentations of animations shown in the videos, and a complete list of image sources, are available online. [Students may understand this video better after they have watched an earlier video, Sequencing a Genome: Inside the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center, which is also available within this database.]
HHMI Professor: Sarah Elgin, Ph.D.

Award Years: 2002, 2006, 2010
Summary: Sarah Elgin, Ph.D., is an HHMI Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who studies the role of chromatin structure in gene regulation in fruit flies. Her HHMI-funded educational initiatives include:
- The development of curricula and multimedia materials that bring the concepts of genomics to the undergraduate and high school settings and help students become comfortable in using large data sets as a research tool in biology. Courses include a one-semester, upper-level laboratory course, Research Explorations in Genomics, that gives selected juniors and seniors an opportunity to work as a team on a large-scale sequencing project, and a bioinformatics laboratory that lets students use Web-based bioinformatics tools to explore the impact of a particular mutation on protein structure and metabolic function;
- A Summer Research Fellowships Program that enables middle school and high school science teachers to conduct research in the labs of Washington University faculty, learning first-hand about genomics research methods and developing genomics materials for their classrooms;
- A video tour of the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center that provides a close-up look at the equipment used in high-throughput sequencing and includes animations of the processes used to sequence DNA, as well as a related set of online classroom activities and resources; and
- The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP)—a partnership between Washington University and primarily undergraduate institutions—to enable students enrolled at other colleges and universities to collaborate on a large-scale genome sequencing project, using data available through Web-based repositories. The GEP organizes research projects and provides training/collaboration workshops for participating faculty and teaching assistants. The current projects center around regulation of chromatin packaging in the unique dot chromosome of Drosophila.