Xinkun Wang

Director, KU Genomics Facility

Job duties:

• Provide technical support and service for KU genomics research. Technologies available at the facility include gene expression profiling, micro RNA expression, genotyping, ChIP-on-chip, human mitochondrial DNA resequencing and more

• Offer consultation and training on genomics technologies for KU researchers, research associates and students

• Collaborate with life scientists, computer scientists, statisticians, and bioinformaticians to promote genomics-oriented research at the university

• Assist researchers in the adoption of genomics, transcriptomics and systems biology approaches in their research.

How does genomics research affect the average person?

Genomics is closer to each one of us than many of us realize. Genomics is genetics writ large and the culmination of our exploration into the vast number of genes and other codes in our DNA. In lay terms, genomics is about studying the complement of information coded in our DNA.

Today the advances in the genomics arena are so significant that it is not something far from our daily lives any more. The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 has been greatly changing the landscape of biomedical research, clinical diagnostics and drug development. For example, new genes that are linked to heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer are being constantly reported.

When we go to our physician’s office, our physician more and more often asks about our family history on major diseases like those mentioned above. DNA-based cancer screening is becoming more and more common. The concept and practice of personalized medicine have arisen from the recognition that we are different from each other in terms of our genetic predisposition to diseases and our responses to medications.

It might sound futuristic, but it won’t be too long before we can get our own genomes sequenced easily and inexpensively. With our genomic information available, we will be able to know our health risk factors and then take preventive measures to minimize the risks. Our doctors can also use our genomic information to choose the medications to which we are most responsive while minimizing side effects.

Besides improving our health, genomics will also help answer many other questions about ourselves, like where we come from, our relationships with other species and ultimately who we really are.

Part of the facility’s mission is to foster collaboration. How wide of a scope of disciplines at KU use the facility? The facility has served a wide spectrum of research activities at KU, ranging from plant biology, developmental biology, ecology, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, chemistry, medicinal chemistry, chemical engineering, to computer science and bioinformatics.

The projects that this facility has served are very diverse in nature. For example, researchers have used our capabilities to answer questions from how blood and intestinal cells respond to drug treatments, how brain neurons age and degenerate, how many microorganisms are in a soil sample, to how stem cells differentiate to form cartilage on engineered biomaterials.

Do students work with the Genomics Facility in their research as well, and what can they learn from faculty who work with the facility?Many of the users who come to the facility and use the equipment are actually graduate and undergraduate students. The ability to use common genomics instruments and analyze genomics data, as well as familiarity with key genomics concepts in general, is becoming more and more essential to students in many bio-related fields. The skills these students acquired from this facility are important marketable tools when they graduate and hunt for jobs.

How has your own research benefited or been affected by the collaborative nature of the facility? Many genomics-related projects are interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Collaboration is the name of the game. As a researcher myself in the field of neurogenomics, I know that an individual lab is often difficult, if not impossible, to cover every aspect of a research project. From my own experience, my research work would not be possible without contributions from my collaborators including biochemists, neurobiologists and bioinformaticians.

As the facility director, one of the benefits of interacting and collaborating with researchers in many different fields is the opportunity to view a problem from many different angles. This, in return, benefits our researchers as well, as sometimes I can spot something that a researcher has overlooked. Additionally, familiarity with many researchers’ projects and expertise can help me identify their individual needs, and sometimes match collaborating partners with complementary expertise.