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About Us

Broad Clinical Labs (BCL) is a subsidiary of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard that provides a range of research and clinical services — including CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified genomic data generation and advanced genomic analysis — both for the Broad research community and for the rest of the world.

BCL is comprised of ~240 people with expertise in a range of disciplines including

  • Alliance and Project Management
  • Analytics, Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), and Data Visualization
  • Translational Analysis
  • Variant analysis, clinical interpretation and reporting, and genetic counseling
  • Data Processing, Management, and Delivery
  • High throughput lab operations, sample management, robotics, and bioautomation
  • Quality and Compliance
  • Rapid Technology Integration, Development, and Scaleup
  • Molecular Methods Development, R&D, and Product Development
  • Computational and AI methods and tools development
  • Work Design, Visual Management, Six Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing

Our History

Broad Clinical Labs (BCL) has evolved from the Broad Institute’s Genomics Platform (GP), which has a 30-year track record of delivering on transformative projects in the field of genomics. Throughout our history we have created foundational genomics resources and capabilities for the community and undertaken large-scale disease-based projects that pioneer approaches and advance the understanding of the genomic basis of disease and other traits.

Since the inception of the Human Genome Project in the 1990s, we have played a leadership role in the design, data generation, and methods development in support of major genomic resource projects including:

The International Haplotype Map (HapMap) Project  

The 1000 Genomes Project 

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) 

Generation of Comparative Reference Genomes (many)

The ENCODE Project 

The Genotype-tissue Expression Project (GTEx) 

The Human Microbiome Project 

The Exome Sequencing Program Center for Mendelian Genomics 

The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) 

The Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) and Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) projects 

NHLBI Trans-omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) 

The All Of Us Program 

Our Capabilities

Over the past ten years, we have been the largest producer of human genomic information in the world, and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were one of the largest producers of COVID-19 diagnostic test results in the world. Since 2022, we have routinely generated >2,000 terabases per month of genomic data — a rate equivalent to one whole human whole genome every three minutes. We have processed more than 3 million genomic specimens (including >550k genomes and >770k exomes) from more than 1,400 groups in more than 50 countries.

Since 2022, we have processed over half a million genomic specimens from around the world , which were processed through workflows including whole genome and whole exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, genotyping, Covid sequencing, and many others including cancer panel sequencing, single cell sequencing, and non-Covid microbial sequencing. The data generated and projects supported by data generation from these specimens are destined to contribute knowledge to a wide array of fields, from rare disease research to population genomics, from cancer clinical trials to understanding cell circuitry.

>550,000 whole genomes sequenced to date

>550,000 whole genomes sequenced to date