The GSR offers expertise for DNA and RNA analysis using sequencing, genotyping, real-time PCR, Affymetrix GeneChips, nCounter Analysis, next-generation sequencing library generation, next-generation sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, nucleic acid extraction and QC for RNA/DNA/proteins.
- Director: Amanda Ewart Toland, PhD, FACMG
- Technical Director, Next-Generation Sequencing Libraries: Pearlly Yan, PhD
- Laboratory Supervisor: Paolo Fadda, PharmD
- Senior Research Associate, Huabao Wang, BS
- Research Associate, Xi Chen, PhD
- Research Associate: Estela Puchulu-Campanella, MS
- Research Specialist: Christine Daugherty, MS
- Researcher 2: Richard Wiemels, MS
Amanda Ewart Toland, PhD, FACMG, Director of the GSR, is a professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics and the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Human Genetics. She has board certification through the American Board of Genetics and Genomics in PhD Medical Genetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics. Her research focuses on the genetics of cancer susceptibility and modifiers of cancer risk in the general population and in high-risk families, genetics of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas and the interplay between germline genetic variation and somatic events in tumors. Dr. Toland has extensive experience in different genotyping platforms and has used next-generation sequencing, NanoString nCounter profiling, genotyping, and qPCR extensively for her own research. She is well-qualified to provide expert assistance for designing genomics experiments to GRS users.
Pearlly Yan, PhD, technical director, is a research associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Division of Hematology. She joined the GSR since 2008 and was responsible for setting up the Illumina NGS services. The cell-based limiting cell RNA sequencing (lcRNA-seq) and the CLEAR analysis package developed by Dr. Yan (R50 NCI Research Specialist Awards) are employed in rare-cell projects yielding full-length transcriptomic- and TCR/BCR profiles. Dr. Yan works closely with 10X Genomics to offer cutting-edge technologies in single-cell and spatial transcriptomic analyses for fresh and FFPE samples. She has established collaborations with Qiagen to offer streamlined solutions from nucleic acid isolation to library generation and turnkey data analysis using the RNA Analysis Portal. Dr. Yan works closely with Drs. Toland and Chen on new NGS service development, user interactions, project management and day-to-day operations of the NGS services.
Paolo Fadda, PharmD, laboratory supervisor, earned a PharmD degree from Sassari University (Italy) and brings more than 13 years of research experience in molecular biology and more than 10 years in the shared resource. Dr. Fadda has experience in nucleic acids isolation and QC, gene expression analysis (including TaqMan gene expression assays), TaqMan Low Density Array (TLDA), TaqMan microRNA assays, SYBR Green chemistry and data analysis, genotyping analysis (SNP and CNV), Fluidigm genotyping, copy number assessment and gene expression, spatial transcriptomics and proteomics using the NanoString GeoMx Digital Spatial profiler, high-throughput gene expression analysis using the nCounter System from NanoString Technologies and Affymetrix Technology applications.
Xi Chen, PhD, research associate II, received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the Genomics Shared Resource in 2016 with more than 15 years research experience in molecular biology, cell biology and cancer biology. At the GSR, he is responsible for NGS application development, protocol optimization and generation of various sequencing libraries (RNA-seq, DNA-seq, Exome analysis, Targeted-panel sequencing, Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing). Recently, he implemented two single-cell sequencing approaches, SMART-seq2 and 10X Genomics GEM. Dr. Chen is currently developing other 10X Genomics single-cell analyses such as scATAC-seq and scVDJ-seq.
Christine Daugherty, MS, research specialist, earned her master's in Molecular Genetics from Ohio State. She has more than 25 years of experience in molecular biology, sequencing and genotyping research and analysis. Her expertise includes Sanger-based DNA sequencing and genotyping (including cell line verification) on ABI PRISM 3730xl DNA Analyzers.
Estela Puchula-Campanella, BS, research associate, has more than 30 years of research experience in academia and industry settings. Her research focus includes protein and nucleic acid extraction and analysis, next-generation sequencing technology, hematology, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, micro computed tomography, microscopy, electrophoresis and chromatography. In the GSR, she generates NGS libraries including RNA-seq (smRNA, mRNA and total RNA-seq) and targeted NGS panels. She also isolates RNA from fixed tissues using the Covaris E220.
Huabao Wang, BS, senior research associate, has over 12 years of experience in preparing sequencing libraries including whole transcriptome, miRNA and targeted genomic DNA libraries. She previously oversaw our Affymetrix microarray offerings as well as DNA/RNA quality control. Currently Huabao is part of our next-generation sequencing team and generates a variety of NGS library types from multiple nucleic acid sources.
Richard Wiemels, MS, researcher 2, earned his master’s from Ohio University and has over 10 years of experience in molecular biology and biochemistry. He joined our team in 2022. His expertise includes nucleic acid isolation and QC, qPCR, RNA-seq, assay development, and chromatography. He currently supports projects needing the NanoString nCounter system, the Affymetrix GeneChip systems, qPCR, and ddPCR, as well as BioAnalyzer and TapeStation DNA and RNA QC.