The University of Maine DNA Sequencing Facility was established in 1994 through a NSF EPSCoR grant to support Marine Molecular Biology at the University of Maine. Though we are relatively small, we feel one of our greatest assets is our excellent customer service and our ability to work one on one with our clients to give them the best sequencing experience possible. We have clients all over the United States as well as many other countries throughout the world.

The facility currently has two full time employees, Ms. Patty Singer, manager of the facility and Mr. David Cox, technician. Dr. Rebecca Van Beneden is the faculty supervisor and, as the first faculty hired under the NSF EPSCoR grant, was charged with establishing the facility.

The facility initially used an ABI 373 DNA Sequencer but quickly upgraded to the stretch version of that instrument to offer improved read lengths. Several years later, the facility acquired the newer ABI 377 DNA Sequencer to accommodate the increased sequencing and DNA fragment analysis needs of our customers. In 2003, the facility purchased its capillary sequencer, the 3730 DNA Analyzer from ABI. This instrument has allowed for improvements in data quality, read length, and turnaround time for our clients.