The Functional Genomics Shared Resource was established as a shared resource for the application of functional genomic technologies to support the research programs of investigators at Duke and beyond. Through investments in genetic and chemical perturbation technologies, we have assembled state-of-the-art reagents and equipment, providing researchers access to genome-wide RNAi reagents and the infrastructure necessary to conduct large-scale functional studies in mammalian cells.

Expertise: The facility serves to provide expertise in the development and use of reagents for genetic perturbation, including RNAi, ORF overexpression and CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing platforms.
Genetic Reagents: We maintain several human genome RNAi collections for screening: The Qiagen Human genome siRNA library v1.0, the TRC1 lentiviral shRNA library and an MSCV-based retroviral shRNA library. The siRNA library may be screened in arrayed format, subsets of the TRC1 library may be screened in arrayed or pooled format and the MSCV retroviral library is available only in pooled format. We also distribute individual lentiviral shRNA clones from the TRC are available as bacterial glycerol stocks, through our shRNA request system.
Chemical Reagents: We have several libraries available for screening, see http://sites.duke.edu/functionalgenomics/screening/ for more details.
Genome-wide screens: The Functional Genomics Shared Resource has developed the infrastructure necessary to conduct high-throughput screens, providing automated liquid handlers, cell platers and plate washers. For plate-based quantitative assays, we have the Cellomics high-content screening system, as well as multimodal plate readers. Screens can also be performed in pooled format using a selection-based strategy.
Phenotypic assays: The facility offers high-content screening with the Cellomics ArrayScan system, as well as sensitive signal detection with two high-performance multimodal plate readers. All systems are equipped with plate stackers and barcode readers for walk-away functionality and true high-throughput processing.