Explore UAB

Mission

The Microbiome Research Core advances the overall UAB mission by supporting the study of the microbial communities of the human body. We provide investigators support for microbiome analysis — from study design and sample acquisition, through microbial DNA isolation and 16S V4 amplicon rRNA gene sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform, to bioinformatics analysis and interpretation of the results. The core makes these capabilities accessible to clinical and basic-science investigators across UAB, whether they are beginning their first microbiome study or scaling up an established one.

16S rRNA

Microbial DNA isolation

Community profiling of fecal and other biological samples.
Illumina MiSeq

Microbial DNA isolation

High-throughput amplicon sequencing platform.
QWRAP

Microbial DNA isolation

Established bioinformatics analysis workflow.

1


Sample acquisition

Samples are collected and stored to preserve the microbial community.
2


DNA isolation

Microbial DNA is extracted and used for 16S V4 rRNA gene PCR.
3


16S MiSeq sequencing

The 16S V4 rRNA gene is sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform.
4


Bioinformatics

The data analysis is returned using an HTML link that provides taxa, alpha and beta diversity.