Bioinformatics Consulting and Service Core (BCSC)

Mission

The Bioinformatics Consulting and Service Core (BCSC) at NC State offers expertise in analysis of data related to genetics and genomics. It is our goal to create a collaborative relationship that will provide you with software, hardware and analytical support related to bioinformatics, functional genomics and life sciences research. Services are available to all members of the research community, with discounted rates available for NC State and UNC system affiliates.

Analysis Support

Analysis support is provided for all areas of genetic and genomic research, including genome and transcriptome assembly (both long- and short-read), differential expression, metagenomics, metabolomics, genomic screens, sequence alignment, ChIP-seq, amplicon analysis, primer design (including methylation studies), comparative genomics, qualitative and quantitative linkage, heritability analysis, segregation, copy number variation, association analysis, and cutting edge data-mining and pathway analysis techniques. The BCSC can also provide assistance with the submission of sequence data and genome assemblies to public repositories.

The BCSC works closely with the Genomic Sciences Laboratory (GSL) to provide bioinformatics support and analysis for customers obtaining high-throughput sequencing data from the GSL.

Software Support

The BCSC has the capability to create custom software using a variety of programming languages. The group has and does produce stand-alone software for genetic and genomic analysis, as well as web applications for phenotype and genotype data entry and retrieval.

Infrastructure

The BCSC maintains a computing environment that contains multiple compute nodes ranging from 32GB up to 768GB of RAM. Our cluster is attached to over 200 TB of local storage.

These servers are in constant use for statistical analysis and data storage by the faculty, trainees, staff, and customers of the BCSC. The servers have a full suite of genetic data analysis programs, such as SAS, R, BLAST, Bowtie, Cufflinks, HISAT, StringTie, SAMtools, bedtools, PLINK, QIIME, Trinity, Velvet, etc. Infrastructure is also available to set up and maintain customized BLAST website solutions. These servers are expandable to meet future computing and storage demands