Genomic Opportunities Lab
Elevate your science
The research landscape changed dramatically in 2025. It is increasingly obvious that we need to get creative as it becomes more difficult for ecologists and conservationists to rely on traditional strategies for sustaining impactful research programs. Funding is in short supply, training opportunities are being cut, and we are all being asked to do more with less.
To rise to this challenge, we are launching the Genomic Opportunities Lab, or "GenOps," as a hub for creative problem-solving. We aim to leverage the intellectual resources that we are privileged to have concentrated at our world-class lab in order to elevate and extend the impact of research in the field. We will foster creative, practical, and cost-effective opportunities to enhance collaboration with practitioners who see timely opportunities for impact. Because we are not a commercial outfit, we can simply prioritize the value of every research and training dollar in ways that others may not.
To rise to this challenge, we are launching the Genomic Opportunities Lab, or "GenOps," as a hub for creative problem-solving. We aim to leverage the intellectual resources that we are privileged to have concentrated at our world-class lab in order to elevate and extend the impact of research in the field. We will foster creative, practical, and cost-effective opportunities to enhance collaboration with practitioners who see timely opportunities for impact. Because we are not a commercial outfit, we can simply prioritize the value of every research and training dollar in ways that others may not.
Common Projects We Support
Several of the Lab's specialities are in high demand. We are taking steps to make it easy to contract and train with us. Read on to learn more and get in touch.
The Leadership Team
What makes the Genomic Opportunities Lab such an effective partner is that our leaders know and respect the effort required to make projects work in their entirety: from sampling in the field, to work at the bench, to computational analysis and interpretation. We understand how important it is to get the details right — papers, careers, and conservation impacts depend on it.
Anna Jackson, MSc Laboratory Manager |
Tim Divoll, PhD Senior Data Scientist |
Tyler Kartzinel, PhD Principal Investigator |
Current & Recent Partners
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you a fee-for-service center?
No, we are an academic lab at Brown University. We are choosing to invite collaborations to foster the growth of impactful knowledge and understanding in our field.
We run a high-end molecular lab dedicated to biodiversity genomics. We are very versatile but perhaps best known for our dietary DNA metabarcoding work with humans, livestock, and wildlife. We are often inundated with requests to collaborate on this type of research -- establishing the Genomic Opportunities Lab advances our strategy to facilitate contract-based collaborations to enhance the impact of research and training opportunities in the field.
We run a high-end molecular lab dedicated to biodiversity genomics. We are very versatile but perhaps best known for our dietary DNA metabarcoding work with humans, livestock, and wildlife. We are often inundated with requests to collaborate on this type of research -- establishing the Genomic Opportunities Lab advances our strategy to facilitate contract-based collaborations to enhance the impact of research and training opportunities in the field.
Are there advantages to contracting with the genomic opportunities lab?
We are scientists. We are motivated to understand ecology and support conservation. We are not a commercial company or a high-throughput facility that is too focused on volume and profit. You will work with experts in the whole research process, from conceptualization to actualization to publication. Please see our publications for evidence of how we pioneer and creatively apply DNA technology to real-world problems.
A major advantage to working with us as an academic lab is that we are often able to keep costs well below market rates. We do not charge overhead and our labor costs are often subsidized. However, demand for our time often exceeds our capacity -- we maintain a waitlist for projects when this happens.
Much like a teaching hospital, an important goal of all our operations is to educate the next generation of leaders in our field. Contracting with us enhances training opportunities for students in the lab; you will feel good knowing that you are creating these kinds of added benefits when deciding how to spend your money. This also builds awareness of the important work you are doing among early career researchers in your field.
A major advantage to working with us as an academic lab is that we are often able to keep costs well below market rates. We do not charge overhead and our labor costs are often subsidized. However, demand for our time often exceeds our capacity -- we maintain a waitlist for projects when this happens.
Much like a teaching hospital, an important goal of all our operations is to educate the next generation of leaders in our field. Contracting with us enhances training opportunities for students in the lab; you will feel good knowing that you are creating these kinds of added benefits when deciding how to spend your money. This also builds awareness of the important work you are doing among early career researchers in your field.
When should i work with a commercial company or service center instead?
You know your research needs the best and ultimately have to decide where to spend your money. Reasons you might consider working with a commercial or fee-for-service center could include:
- You prefer to work with a customer service rep than a collaborator
- You are on a tight deadline for results
- You need data guarantees that you discover we are unable to provide
- You need to maintain chain-of-custody records for legal / forensic purposes
How quickly can i expect results or plan to visit your lab?
This depends on the size and complexity of the project, of course. It also depends on our waitlist. If you need results in a hurry, feel free to inquire with the PI but please don't be surprised if we refer you to a third-party provider. We understand how valuable your time can be!
Under normal circumstances, we will strive to provide sequencing results within 1-3 months of the contract start date. If you wish to visit our lab for training or other project-specific development needs, we can often schedule this within 4-6 months.
Under normal circumstances, we will strive to provide sequencing results within 1-3 months of the contract start date. If you wish to visit our lab for training or other project-specific development needs, we can often schedule this within 4-6 months.
HOW SECURE ARE MY SAMPLES AND DATA?
We maintain our lab to Biosafety Level 2 standards, which is the highest level of biosecurity supported at Brown University. Data are processed and stored on our secure server called "Oscar" in collaboration with the Brown Center for Computation and Visualization.
WHAT GUARANTEES CAN YOU OFFER?
Before committing to any project, we will have a conversation about your goals. Everything we can commit to will be detailed in a PSA (professional services agreement). This PSA serves as our contract. We may not be able to offer money-back guarantees or other incentives that for-profit customer service centers may provide. But we do promise to be professional and conscientious about all of the research expectations that get laid out in our contract.
Can i see an example of the contract you provide?
Absolutely! In fact, we will provide examples specific to the types of commonly sought-after research and training opportunities we are offering on the pages linked above. These are very customizable based on the specifics of each collaboration. We encourage you to share these templates with your finance team to ensure you know who is authorized to sign for your institution -- sometimes its PIs, sometimes Department Heads, and other times a representative of the institutional legal team.
Do you accept international samples?
We have permits to handle certain types of samples from outside of the United States. For all international collaborations, we will carefully review legal requirements for import / export controls prior to beginning. We may need to update our permits to cover a project, and sometimes this incurs a processing fee. In our recent experience, though, it is becoming more difficult to export samples for these kinds of projects from other countries of origin than to receive samples in the United States.
Do you provide bioinformatic support?
Yes! Many of our bioinformatic pipelines are publicly available via GitHub and other repositories associated with our publications. You can find a curated set of our most popular and frequently used pipelines on the Software & Data page of our website. Many of these resources are finely tuned to the computing cluster we use here at Brown, and investigators who partner with us can benefit from gaining direct access to these data resources. However, our open-source code repositories are available and can be set up to run using your institution's resources as well -- computer savvy researchers may prefer this option, though we always we recommend consulting your institution's IT team when you consider this option.
When we develop a PSA, we will offer options that could include:
When we develop a PSA, we will offer options that could include:
- We process samples from DNA extraction through sequencing and bioinformatics to provide a final results table
- We process samples and provide raw data for you to analyze on your own, using our pipelines or any other of your choosing
- We accept extracted DNA for sequencing and return raw data for you to analyze (thriftiest option)
What does collaboration mean to you?
We emphasize collaboration because we are not a fee-for-service provider -- we enter each contract as collaborators. To us, collaboration is all about working together to advance knowledge in the field in the broadest sense. We run a world-class lab and we want to make the type of research we do available and affordable to the scientific research community at a time when research supports have become increasingly limited.
We do not necessarily assume collaboration is equivalent to coauthorship. However, we prefer to be involved in the science at some fundamental level. We find it helps to discuss these kinds of expectations before work begins -- please let us know if you have strong needs or expectations from your collaboration with us!
We do not necessarily assume collaboration is equivalent to coauthorship. However, we prefer to be involved in the science at some fundamental level. We find it helps to discuss these kinds of expectations before work begins -- please let us know if you have strong needs or expectations from your collaboration with us!