Illumina Sequencer Teardown

Bob Kain, the Chief Engineer at Illumina, and the leader of the team responsible for the engineering work on the HiSeq 2000 and subsequent sequencing devices, will be on hand to walk us through the major components of the system, give an overview of next generation sequencing, and answer questions about both the design tradeoffs made in major biotech device projects and the future of the field.

The defining characteristic of our exponentially increasing capability in biology is the ease with which we are now able to sequence DNA. At the forefront of this is Illumina.

Their sequencers power two thirds of the world market. Although there are competitors in the desktop sequencing market, on the high end, high throughput machines Illumina is clearly the frontrunner. These machines cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it's not like peeking into the cover of your computer.
One of these machines is in the back room at BioCurious just waiting to satisfy our curiosity!

You have the opportunity to come help take apart an Illumina Genome Analyzer. We'll start with a discussion on next generation sequencing to make sure everyone understands the theory, then we'll dig into the machine.

What optics are used?
How is the chemistry moved around?
What imaging and electronics components are used?
How is the system assembled?
The beast uses a combination of microscopy, robotics, molecular biology, lasers, optics, high speed data transfer, protein engineering, big data, and of course genomics...

At the end of the day, this spectacular machine will be laid bare. You'll see where the magic happens and help us decide if it's possible for DIYbio makers to hack a lower - cost DIY version.

Nowhere else in the world do you have the opportunity to break out a screwdriver and help take apart this type of machine, only a couple years back from the absolute state of the art. If you've ever wondered about the intersection of manufacturing, electronics, chemical and biological engineering that is driving the genome sequencing race, this is your chance. We're keeping space limited so that everyone can have a chance to get up close and participate, so sign up quickly at the meetup page.

Minimum age of participant: 10 years old. This event is geared toward adults.