Since its inception in 1997, Genoscope’s mission has been to participate in ambitious collaborative projects, selected upon criteria of scientific excellence, by providing the scientific community with cutting edge expertise and large scale capacities for the production and analysis of genomic data. Genoscope has thus participated in the Human Genome Project (Chromosome 14), in plant genome projects (algae, grapevine, the banana tree, Arabidopsis, rice, cocoa tree, medicago truncatule, etc.), animal genome projects (Tetraodon, Anopheles, etc.) and fungi (truffle, fungal pathogens such as Leptosphaeria maculans and Botrytis cinerea). Genoscope has also sequenced more than a hundred prokaryotic genomes.
A part of the CEA since 2007, Genoscope now accomplishes its mission of service to the scientific community within the framework of the national infrastructure France Génomique (www.france-genomique. org), laureate of the French Investissements d’Avenir program in 2011.
Since its creation, Genoscope maintains its international competitiveness by incorporating the many technological leaps and developments produced worldwide in the field of genomic data production and analysis. The Genoscope sequencing facility now includes two Illumia HiSeq4000, two Illumina HiSeq2500, two Illumina MiSeq, eight Oxford Nanopore MinION, one Oxford Nanopore PromethION and two ABI 3730xl. The facility is progressively upgrading to the third generation NGS instruments and technologies that are beginning to appear on the market. Genoscope’s activities also strongly rely on its informatics, bioinformatics and bioanalysis expertise and resources, which are integral elements of Genoscope platforms.
Genoscope is currently focusing its own research activity on the metagenomics of microorganisms from the environment, and more specifically marine eukaryotes (the TARA Oceans project), soilborne organisms, the bacterial flora of the human digestive tract, or those involved in effluent treatment. Comparative genomics in plants is also a subject under development at Genoscope. The exploitation of sequencing data and the resulting identification of biological functions, particularly in biocatalysis, has opened new development horizons in industrial biotech. With a sustainable development perspective, Genoscope is searching for biological solutions in chemical synthesis, in order to reduce pollution and energy & fossil fuel consumption.
To this end, Genoscope has developed a high throughput enzyme activity screening platform and a metabolic engineering laboratory. This research is performed in close collaboration with the UMR 8030 Metabolic Genomics research unit. Including all these activities, Genoscope teams have co-authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications.
