What Is the McDonnell Genome Institute? Multi-Omic Services and How to Work With MGI

The McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI) is a genomics and proteomics research institute at Washington University in St. Louis that provides multi-omic services to academic and biopharma partners. It traces its origins to a central role in the Human Genome Project and now operates four technology hubs covering sequencing, genome engineering, mass spectrometry, and functional imaging. If you have a genomics, proteomics, or multi-omics project—especially a difficult one—MGI is structured to take it from sample to data on a defined timeline and budget.

What MGI Is and What Makes It Distinctive

MGI describes itself as a world leader in genomics with a broad technology portfolio and long-standing collaboration and outreach pipelines. The institute emphasizes that its work is unusual because of the breadth of resources available in one location—you can move between sequencing, cell engineering, mass spectrometry, and imaging without coordinating separate vendors.

Two figures from MGI's own reporting illustrate its track record with partners:

The high repeat-partner rate is the most useful signal if you are evaluating MGI as a service provider: most organizations that use it come back.

The Four Technology Hubs and What Each Provides

MGI organizes its services into four access centers. Which one you contact depends on what your project actually needs.

Genome Technology Access Center

This is the hub for sequencing and related genomics work:

• Short-read sequencing
• Long-read sequencing
• High-throughput proteomics
• Single cell genomics
• Spatial transcriptomics
• Computational biology and bioinformatics

If your project is primarily "sequence these samples and help me analyze the data," this is the entry point.

Genome Engineering & Stem Cell Center

For projects that require modified cells or organisms rather than sequencing alone:

• Genome-edited stem cell and cancer cell lines
• Genome-edited model organisms
• Patient-derived iPSCs
• Stem cell differentiation
• CRISPR screening

This hub is relevant when you need a model system built or a genetic screen run before downstream analysis.

Mass Spectrometry Technology Access Center

This hub covers mass spectrometry–based measurement:

• Proteomics
• Metabolomics
• Lipidomics
• Deep-scale PTM (post-translational modification) analysis
• Native mass spectrometry
• Spatial multi-omics MS technologies

Choose this hub when your question is about proteins, metabolites, or modifications rather than nucleic acids.

Functional Imaging for Variant Elucidation

This hub focuses on linking genetic variants to function through imaging and screening:

• Massively parallel genetic cellular screening
• Drug screening
• Isolating live cells from specific phenotypes
• Spatial transcriptomics
• Image analysis

This is the relevant hub when you have variants of uncertain significance and need functional evidence, or when you want to screen compounds against a cellular phenotype.

How the Hubs Fit Together

The four hubs are not independent silos. A typical multi-omic project might move through several:

1. Genome Engineering builds a CRISPR-edited cell line or runs a screen.
2. Genome Technology Access Center sequences the resulting clones or populations.
3. Mass Spectrometry measures protein or metabolite changes in those same samples.
4. Functional Imaging confirms the phenotype visually or isolates cells of interest.

Because all four sit within one institute, samples and data can pass between them without leaving MGI—this is the practical meaning of MGI's claim about breadth of resources in one location.

Who MGI Serves

MGI works with two main partner categories, both listed explicitly on its site:

• Academic institutes (65 current partners)
• Biopharma organizations (56 current partners)

The institute states it is "built to deliver results on time and on budget" and "thrives on difficult projects." That positioning matters if your project has failed elsewhere, involves degraded or scarce material, or requires methods that a standard core facility does not offer.

MGI also publishes material on why research-grade data standards matter in clinical trials, noting that decisions at every trial stage depend on data that is accurate, reproducible, and interpretable—particularly when working with scarce or degraded patient material, where analytical precision determines whether samples can be used at all.

How to Start a Project With MGI

MGI's site provides a "Start a Project" entry point, and each of the four technology hubs has its own "Learn More" page describing its services in detail. The practical sequence is:

1. Identify which hub matches your primary need. Use the lists above—sequencing goes to the Genome Technology Access Center, cell models to Genome Engineering, protein/metabolite measurement to Mass Spectrometry, functional variant work to Functional Imaging.
2. Go to that hub's page to review the specific service list and confirm your assay is offered.
3. Use the "Start a Project" path to begin the conversation with MGI about scope, timeline, and deliverables.

If your project spans multiple hubs, start with the hub that handles the earliest step in your workflow and raise the downstream needs when you make contact.

What to Check Before You Commit

Because MGI's public materials describe capabilities and partner counts but do not publish service pricing or turnaround guarantees, confirm the following directly with MGI during project scoping:

• Whether your specific assay is currently offered at the hub you identified—service lists can change.
• Timeline and cost for your sample type and scale, since "on time and on budget" is a stated commitment rather than a published schedule.
• What the deliverable includes—raw data, analyzed results, or both—and whether bioinformatics support from the Genome Technology Access Center is part of the scope.
• Sample requirements, especially if your material is scarce or degraded, since that is the scenario where analytical precision is most consequential.

For difficult projects or multi-omic designs that need sequencing, cell engineering, mass spectrometry, and imaging under one roof, MGI's combination of breadth and a 95% repeat-partner rate makes it a reasonable first contact. For routine, single-assay work, compare it against local core facilities on turnaround and cost before deciding.