The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG)
Website: http://www.tcag.ca/
Summary
Since its inception in 1998, the mandate of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) has been to provide world-leading infrastructure support for innovative research and service in genomics, including the characterization of genes and genomes of medical, therapeutic, and biological interest.
TCAG maintains core facilities for (i) DNA Sequencing and Synthesis, (ii) Cytogenomics and Genome Resources, (iii) Gene Expression and Microarrays, (iv) Genetic and Statistical Analysis, and (v) Biobanking and Databases. Each core has significant research and development and training activities with capacity for incremental growth. There is also an Administrative Group that supports all of these activities.
The Director of TCAG is Dr. Stephen Scherer and there are seven Scientific Co-Directors (Drs. Bulman, Danska, Greenwood, Osborne, Paterson, Ray, Rommens), each of whom commit significant time and expertise towards maintaining a state-of-art infrastructure.
Significant Outcomes to Date
- TCAG has provided services to over 1,180 laboratories: 70% from Ontario and 86% from Canada;9 Canadian provinces; 28 countries; 211 academic institutions (universities, teaching hospitals and colleges); 44 companies (33 from Ontario); and, 13 government or NGO institutions.
- TCAG has developed the Ontario Population Genomics Platform repository which contains over 1,700 cell lines and DNA from healthy controls.
- TCAG also hosts the following databases:
- Autism Chromosome Rearrangement Database
- The Chromosome 7 Annotation Project
- Cystic Fibrosis Mutation Database
- Database of Genomic Variants
- Human Genome Segmental Duplication Database
- The Lafora Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy Mutation and Polymorphism Database
- Non-Human Segmental Duplication Database
Notable Publications
Redon R, Ishikawa S, Fitch KR, Feuk L, Perry GH, Andrews TD, Fiegler H, Shapero MH, Carson AR, Chen W, Cho EK, Dallaire S, Freeman JL, Gonzalez JR, Gratacos M, Huang J, Kalaitzopoulos D, Komura D, MacDonald JR, Marshall CR, Mei R, Montgomery L, Nishimura K, Okamura K, Shen F, Somerville MJ, Tchinda J, Valsesia A, Woodwark C, Yang F, Zhang J, Zerjal T, Zhang J, Armengol L, Conrad DF, Estivill X, Tyler-Smith C, Carter NP, Aburatani H, Lee C, Jones KW, Scherer SW, and Hurles ME. 2006. Global variation in copy number in the human genome. Nature. 444(7118):444-54.
Pantano L, Aburatani H, Jones K, Redon R, Hurles M, Armengol L, Estivill X, Mural RJ, Lee C, Scherer SW, and Feuk L. 2006. Genome assembly comparison identifies structural variants in the human genome. Nat Genet. 38(12):1413-8.
Somerville MJ, Mervis CB, Young EJ, Seo EJ, del Campo M, Bamforth S, Peregrine E, Loo W, Lilley M, Perez-Jurado LA, Morris CA, Scherer SW, and Osborne LR. 2005. Severe expressive-language delay related to duplication of the Williams-Beuren locus. N Engl J Med. 353(16):1694-701.
Khaja R, Zhang J, Macdonald JR, He Y, Joseph-George AM, Wei J, Rafiq MA, Qian C, Shago M, Iafrate AJ, Feuk L, Rivera MN, Listewnik ML, Donahoe PK, Qi Y, Scherer SW, and Lee C. 2004. Detection of large-scale variation in the human genome. Nat Genet. 36(9):949-51.
Scherer SW, Cheung J, MacDonald JR, Osborne LR, Nakabayashi K, Herbrick JA, Carson AR, Parker-Katiraee L, Skaug J, Khaja R, Zhang J, Hudek AK, Li M, Haddad M, Duggan GE, Fernandez BA, Kanematsu E, Gentles S, Christopoulos CC, Choufani S, Kwasnicka D, Zheng XH, Lai Z, Nusskern D, Zhang Q, Gu Z, Lu F, Zeesman S, Nowaczyk MJ, Teshima I, Chitayat D, Shuman C, Weksberg R, Zackai EH, Grebe TA, Cox SR, Kirkpatrick SJ, Rahman N, Friedman JM, Heng HH, Pelicci PG, Lo-Coco F, Belloni E, Shaffer LG, Pober B, Morton CC, Gusella JF, Bruns GA, Korf BR, Quade BJ, Ligon AH, Ferguson H, Higgins AW, Leach NT, Herrick SR, Lemyre E, Farra CG, Kim HG, Summers AM, Gripp KW, Roberts W, Szatmari P, Winsor EJ, Grzeschik KH, Teebi A, Minassian BA, Kere J, Armengol L, Pujana MA, Estivill X, Wilson MD, Koop BF, Tosi S, Moore GE, Boright AP, Zlotorynski E, Kerem B, Kroisel PM, Petek E, Oscier DG, Mould SJ, Dohner H, Dohner K, Rommens JM, Vincent JB, Venter JC, Li PW, Mural RJ, Adams MD, and Tsui LC. 2003. Human chromosome 7: DNA sequence and biology. Science. 300(5620):767-72.
Taylor MD, Liu L, Raffel C, Hui CC, Mainprize TG, Zhang X, Agatep R, Chiappa S, Gao L, Lowrance A, Hao A, Goldstein AM, Stavrou T, Scherer SW, Dura WT, Wainwright B, Squire JA, Rutka JT, and Hogg D. 2002. Mutations in SUFU predispose to medulloblastoma. Nat Genet. 31(3):306-10.
Osborne LR, Li M, Pober B, Chitayat D, Bodurtha J, Mandel A, Costa T, Grebe T, Cox S, Tsui LC, and Scherer SW. 2001. A 1.5 million-base pair inversion polymorphism in families with Williams-Beuren syndrome. Nat Genet. 29(3):321-5.
