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ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

  • 1.  ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-02-2022 13:06

    August 2, 2022

     

    Hello Everyone,

     

    ABRF members come together to share suggestions and resources to help them address common challenges.  ABRF's leadership seeks to develop programs and activities that help members collaborate and learn about current best practices and potential solutions.

     

    Your help is welcome to identify topics for new programs, to be delivered in one or more of these formats:

     

    • ABRF Meetings
    • Education programs
    • Journal (JBT)  content
    • Chapter events
    • Town Halls
    • Sponsor-led programming
    • Online forums/communities
    • Peer-to-peer discussions

     

     

    Some potential topics could include:

     

    • Staff recruitment and retention
    • Current technology developments by subject area
      • genomics
      • imaging
      • flow cytometry
      • mass spec
      • proteomics

     

    • Rate setting
    • Challenges for single-staff Cores
    • Core recognition
    • Collaborating with other researchers
    • Managing users' expectations
    • Identifying and gaining support for professional development
    • Instrumentation grants
    • Promoting Authorship
    • ?

     


    What other issues are you facing in your work?  Do you think other members may be facing similar issues?

     

    Everyone is invited to add their suggestions in this discussion.  The first 50 people to add new, original suggestions will be entered into a drawing, with one person selected to receive complimentary membership for 2023....

    (How quickly do you think we can generate these ideas?)

     

     

    Thank you for your help.

     

     

     

     

     



     

     

     

    Ken Schoppmann, CAE
    Executive Director

    ABRF
    201 E Main Street, Suite 1405

    Lexington, KY 
    ken.schoppmann@abrf.org
    859-514-9835

    abrf.org

     



  • 2.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-04-2022 10:47
    topics of interest
    1-how to train my staff to be the best trainers ever for our instruments?
    2-how to train my staff to provide the best customer service to the users of my core?

    ------------------------------
    Christine Brantner
    Director, Electron Microscopy Core Imaging Facility
    University of Maryland School of Medicine
    Baltimore MD
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-04-2022 14:55
    Digital PCR could be of interest.

    ------------------------------
    Roxann Ashworth
    Laboratory Director
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore MD
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-05-2022 04:04
    Topic of interest:
    Alternative publication mechanisms

    I've been looking into other ways to get publications for: proof of productivity, disseminating potentially useful resources, claiming an innovative idea as yours.

    So far I've come up with:
    - there's a way for coders to get a DOI for their code (I'm not a coder though)
    - RRIDs for tracking use of antibodies
    - Addgene submission for a plasmid

    I spend a lot of time optimizing methods with users. Sometimes a lot of intellectual work goes into figuring out a solution or optimizing something. That work could potentially never get published (led to very nice but negative results), or get published buried in the methods of the user's research paper several years later when the methodology idea is no longer fresh, or else the work went into a publication where the core was never an author, acknowledged, cited or anything. And usually it's not such a ground breaking development that it can get a proper publication of its own - often it's an established method that took some investment before it was working in our hands.

    How can I get official recognition for my ideas and effort? Something that can go on a resume or the core's track record? How can I share the protocol or resource through an official channel for letting others access? How can I do this in a timely manner before it's gone stale? Regardless of whether the user's results were positive or negative.

    When I worked in C. elegans there was the very informal "Worm Breeder's Gazette" that took bite-sized stories but I don't know of anything like that in my current field of microscopy/high throughput/drug discovery.


    ------------------------------
    Beverley Rabbitts
    Director of Operations
    UCSC
    Santa Cruz CA
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-05-2022 09:34
    Edited by Roxann Ashworth 08-05-2022 09:37
    Hi Beverly,  You should take a look at the Center for Open Science.  They have an interesting publication model that allows for peer review of methods, prior to the experiment, and then publishes positive and negative results.  Protocols.io can also provide a way to publish methods (and obtain a doi for them).  And don't for get about our own JBT, which publishes methods and other developmental protocols. But I agree, these are good topics that could make up a session that would allow dissemination of these tools and brainstorming about other needs.  The upcoming ABRF Town Hall will discuss tools that the Core Marketplace (do you have an rrid for your core??) and SciCrunch have to assist with these issues, too.

    ------------------------------
    Roxann Ashworth
    Laboratory Director
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore MD
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-06-2022 13:09
    I second all the potential ones Ken listed as well at those in the replies. Off the top of my head, our community may also benefit from:

    1.) how to write a business plan … if there is enough interest in a webinar then maybe a workshop

    2.) Seeing how other cores operate … I know I would love to learn from how others run their cores … and present mine to get some constructive feedback. Seeing how other operate is a huge benefit to being part of an external review panel. I am not proposing an advertisement for the core but a peek into how a service is provided … not what but how. Hope I was clear.

    3.) partner JBT articles off with a webinar of the content… this gives people another platform to show their work and it adds value to publishing in JBT. It also promotes feedback and a collaborative environment. It could not be a requirement, but definitely an opportunity the authors could avail themselves of should they choose.

    ---------------------------------
    Frances Weis-Garcia
    Head, Bi-Institutional Antibody and Bioresource Core Faciltiy
    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University
    New York NY
    ---------------------------------





  • 7.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-07-2022 07:57
    Great topics Frances,

    In addition to the three topics you suggested, we can add these:
    1- Improving Core Operations and Gauging Impact: Commonly used surveys and other tools to get Feedback. What are the most effect tools to get feedback from Core Stakeholders?

    2- Core Funding Models: Institutional support mechanisms - from user fees, mini grants, center grants to dedicated overhead funds. How are your Cores Funded?

    3- Reimagining Core Facilities - The future of Core Facilities and the emerging trends shaping that future. The University as an institution is rapidly changing and the change is cascading through almost every aspect of operations. The strategic position of Cores is also changing. What are the major changes ongoing at your institution, that might impact Core Facility operations?

    Just a few off my long list… in addition to Frances’ list.

    Best Regards,

    Claudius///


    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-07-2022 17:16
    All good suggestions Ken and Frances.  In addition, I suggest the following two areas that our EU colleagues have significantly more knowledge and experience: 
    1. Data management for cores.  Data is our deliverable, and yet, many ABRF members do not have a data management plan.  This includes the full definition of data management, from producing initial "raw" data to subsequent analyses/ metadata, storage, sharing, retrieval, archive...
    2.  Sustainability: how can we contribute to the Green Lab activities that are emerging across many institutions? Our SRR Core labs contain some of the most energy-intensive, environmentally impactful instrumentation and equipment, requiring a highly controlled environment that is energy dense, including compressed gases (some extremely environmentally harmful), chilled water, and tight control of both temperature and humidity.  We need to take the lead, understand our impact, calculate our carbon cost and reduce our carbon footprint.

    ------------------------------
    Sheenah Mische
    Sr Director DART
    Associate Professor
    NYU Grossman School of Medicine
    New York NY
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-11-2022 16:23
    I agree that it's time for another session on Sustainability and how we can contribute to the Green Labs activities to reduce carbon footprint and protect the environment.  There has been a lot of progress and new initiatives in US and other countries-- good information to share.  We did a session in San Antonio that we could build on.   Kathy Ramirez has expertise in this area.

    ------------------------------
    Luellen Fletcher
    Associate Director, Path BioResource
    Perelman School of Medicine Biomedical Research Core Facilities
    Philadelphia PA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-12-2022 09:20
    The CEO of MyGreenLabs also spoke in San Diego in 2022.  But this is always a great topic.

    ------------------------------
    Roxann Ashworth
    Laboratory Director
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore MD
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: ABRF Program Content for 2023 - what keeps you up at night?

    Posted 08-31-2022 08:45
    Edited by Sharon Samuel 08-31-2022 09:20
    Possible topics:
    Maintaining a core program that continues to meet the demands of new technology in the field.
    Recruitment of core staff with speciality skills.
    Workflows for users who have multi-core needs.

    ------------------------------
    Sharon Samuel
    Preclinical Imaging Core Manager
    University of Alabama at Birmingham
    ------------------------------



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