The Facility includes: (1) a Packard Bioscience Biochip Arrayer. Based on Ink jet technology the arrayer has 4 piezoelectric capillary tips that achieve extremely accurate non-contact dispensing. When in operation the glass capillaries of PiezoTip dispensers cruise over a glass slide or other substrate at a height of 500 microns, dispensing droplets of 350 picoliters to a target with a X/Y positional accuracy of 10 microns. The Biochip Arrayer is ideal for the production of extremely high quality arrays of up to about 2,000 spots/slide, custom-made to satisfy the requirements of individual investigators. The arrayer also has enormous flexibility in terms of substrate and spotted product, being able to spot on a variety of materials, and not only nucleic acids but also proteins, peptides, and even bacterial cells; (2) an automatic hybridization system in the form of a 12 position GeneTac HybStation. Up to six protocols can be run simultaneously, which allows for hybridization with uniform, reproducible results and minimal handling of solutions and slides; (3) a hybridization oven and rotator, which are optimized for the hybridization of high-density arrays from Agilent Technologies and a Maui Hybridization System; (4) a Perkin Elmer confocal laser scanner Scan Array Express HT is available for microarray scanning using up to 5 lasers which allow for the detection and quantification of signal from virtually all commercially available fluorochromes including the commonly used Cy3 and Cy5; (5) an Agilent Technologies 2100 Bioanalyzer that allows for the rapid assessment of RNA quality (software available with this instrument assigns an RNA Integrity Number (RIN) to the samples, based on various parameters of RNA integrity; and (6) a powerful 8-tip automated liquid handling system – the Perkin Elmer Multiprobe II - to ensure accuracy and reliability in the handling and arraying of oligonuclotides and cDNAs prior to spotting.