The CORE Molecular Biology Operational Area is a cross-sectional area that addresses the molecular biology technique needs of the other CDB services. The clinical activity is organized into the following technology platforms:

• Nucleic acid extraction. This platform performs the automated extraction of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) from biological samples such as peripheral blood, microbiological samples, saliva, cells, and others. Sanger sequencing and fragment analysis. The platform includes nucleic acid amplification protocols and subsequent automated sequencing. Currently, the system has around 2,500 different amplicons that enable the analysis of 300 genes. This process is carried out on a robotic platform that integrates aliquoting equipment and capillary electrophoresis genetic analyzers.

• Nucleic acid expression and genotyping. The platform is equipped with systems for gene expression analysis or genotyping from different types of samples. It includes platforms such as the nCounter® system, real-time PCR systems, and digital PCR.

• Next-generation sequencing (NGS). The platform includes robots and sequencing equipment to perform various NGS protocols applied to the molecular diagnosis of hereditary diseases, characterization of tumor samples, circulating free DNA, and microbiological samples.

• Bioinformatics. The Bioinformatics platform manages the Operational Area’s computing cluster, develops and manages bioinformatics pipelines, and performs data analysis generated using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies or gene expression techniques obtained in the laboratory.