The MAD; Molecular Analyses Department (formerly known as Dutch Genomics Service & Support Provider and as MicroArray Department) is located at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) of the Faculty of Science (FNWI) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

Technology development

The unit was set up in 1999 with funding from the Dutch government plus major investments from several industrial food and pharma partners. The aim was to establish a proficient genomics and transcriptomics facility for life-science researchers from both within and outside the UvA. The projected tasks of the facility would encompass the execution of genomics and transcriptomics experiments, as well as the analysis of the results.

With two next-generation sequencing platforms (Illumina's NextSeq 550, MinION) and a wet-lab staff of nine professionals, the MAD currently supports numerous academic and industrial researchers.

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is an essential element of life-science research. The MAD has been heavily involved in several bioinformatics initiatives, both nationally and internationally, such as “Virtual Laboratory for e-Science –VL-e”(e-science research), “BioRange I & II” (bioinformatics research), “BioAssist I & II” (bioinformatics support), “BiG Grid – eBioGrid” (e-bioscience infrastructure), and “TTI-GG Virtual Lab for Plant Breeding –VLPB” (e-science application support). Over the past years, promissing AI collaborations have been set up to explore new avenues of data analysis.

With our advanced bioinformatics expertise, tools and infrastructure to pre-process and analyze genomics and transcriptomics data, the MAD is well equipped to meet the bioinformatics and data-analysis challenges of contemporary life-science research.