The Microbial Systems Sequencing & Analysis Core (MSSAC) is a specialized research core at Boston Children's Hospital designed to serve researchers at BCH, Harvard Medical School, and the broader academic and life sciences community. While our deepest expertise lies in microbiology and infectious disease, our sequencing services are open to all — if you have samples that need sequencing, we want to hear from you.
While fields such as human genetics and cancer research benefit from an abundance of cutting-edge sequencing resources, microbiology has historically lacked facilities tailored to its unique experimental challenges. MSSAC bridges this gap by offering not only access to state-of-the-art sequencing technology but also the deep experimental and computational expertise required to use it effectively.
MSSAC is directed by Dr. Tim van Opijnen, who developed the Transposon Insertion Sequencing (Tn-Seq) methodology that has become the standard approach for high-throughput genetic analysis in microbiology. The core is staffed by expert scientists ready to engage as a service provider, a training resource, or a full research collaborator — whatever level of support your project requires.
Our mission
To empower researchers — with a particular focus on microbiology and infectious disease — by providing access to state-of-the-art sequencing technologies together with the experimental and computational expertise needed to leverage them. Our sequencing services are available to any research lab, regardless of disease area, ensuring that a lack of in-house resources never limits the scope of important science.
We are specifically committed to:
- Offering infectious disease-centric tools and expertise unavailable from commercial vendors or other recharge centers.
- Providing a comprehensive portal to experimentally and computationally untangle the mechanisms underlying microbial pathogenesis, host-pathogen interactions, microbial community dynamics, and the emergence of drug tolerance and resistance.
- Functioning as more than a service provider — acting as a collaborative scientific partner when needed, from experimental design through data interpretation.
- Making powerful genomic tools accessible to labs that lack in-house bioinformatics or wet-lab expertise.
How we can help you
MSSAC is designed to be as hands-on or hands-off as your project requires. We offer three levels of engagement:
| Engagement level | What it means | Ideal for |
|---|
| Full service | We handle everything: experimental design, sample prep, sequencing, and bioinformatics analysis. | Labs new to a technology or without in-house bioinformatics capacity. |
| Collaborative | We work alongside your team — you lead your experiments while we contribute sequencing, analysis, or domain expertise as needed. | Experienced labs seeking specialized methods or computational support for specific project components. |
| Self-service | You prepare your samples, we execute sequencing, provide infrastructure and support. | Labs that prefer hands-on control of their workflows and data. |
We welcome inquiries at any stage of a project.
Contact
We welcome inquiries from researchers at all stages — whether you have a fully formed project or just an early idea. Reach out to discuss your needs, request a quote, or schedule a consultation.
Email
MSSAC@childrens.harvard.edu
Address
300 Longwood Avenue, Enders Building 748, Boston, MA 02115
Core Director
Tim van Opijnen, PhD
Core Manager
Federico Rosconi, PhD
Learn more
Detailed information about our services, approaches, and recent work is available on the van Opijnen Lab website. You can also submit a sequencing inquiry directly through that page.