The Biochemistry DNA Sequencing Facility (BDSF) has been serving the University of Washington's biomedical research community since January 1996. We started small with just one ABI 377 DNA Analyser and a capacity of 36 samples per day. As demand increased, we added a second ABI 377 and increased our througput to 192 samples per day. Today, we serve a clientele of over 150 Principal Investigators with over 600 individual users from the School of Medicine, the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as Childrens' Hospital and Harborview Hospital. To meet the increasing demand in a timely fashion, we have now scaled up to an ABI 3730XL high-throughput capillary DNA Analyser. We now process about 2000 samples a week (over 100,000 annually) and have the ability to process more. The new machine uses less reagent than the ABI 3700, and give longer reads. We have cut the waiting time from 2 weeks to 2 to 3 business days, and we have slashed our prices 4 times in the past 7 years.

We offer the choice of "reaction + cleanup + analysis" or "analysis only" for a small fraction of the cost. A web-based system for sample submission and data retrieval replaced the previous procedures on September 1, 2003. Using the new sample submission and retrieval system, the ABI 3730XL outputs (electropherogram and sequence) are provided as electronic files in PC and Mac format directly from the BDSF server.