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Biomedical Research Core Facilities. Cassandra Wong Administrative Director Nov. 1, 2011. BRCF Purpose. To provide advanced, state-of-the-art research services to the research community, via centralized instrumentation and scientific expertise.
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Biomedical Research Core Facilities Cassandra Wong Administrative Director Nov. 1, 2011
BRCF Purpose To provide advanced, state-of-the-art research services to the research community, via centralized instrumentation and scientific expertise. BRCF Administration: To manage the lifecycle of the individual core facility, using financial, equipment and personnel investments, so that each core can reach their full potential.
Core facilities…. • Leverage large scientific equipment investments on a school-wide and institutional basis • Create a wide area of access for investigators • Increase efficiency of services while reducing overall cost of services • Drive scientific research as active partners with investigators • Enhance faculty recruitment efforts
Products and Services BRCF Cores: • Biomedical Research Store • Biosafety Containment Core • DNA Sequencing and Microarray Core • Flow Cytometry Core • Protein Structure Core • Sample Preservation Freezer Facility • Transgenic Animal Model Core Incoming BRCF Cores (FY12): • Bioinformatics Core • Microscopy and Image Analysis Core • Vector Core
BRCF Customers Internal U-M Customers: • Over 700 Principal Investigator-led laboratories served in FY11 • Laboratories spread over 130 Dept IDs • 7 schools and colleges • 5 campuses (including Flint and Dearborn) External Customers: For FY11, billed 60 institutions - • from 22 states • from 6 countries outside of U.S. • 8 corporations
BRCF and U-M Departments/Offices • Financial Operations • Office of Financial Analysis • Procurement and Accounts Payable • Accounts Receivable • Sponsored Programs • Tax Department • Cancer Center • Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Program (MDRTC) • Michigan Gastrointestinal Peptide Research Center (MGPRC) • Biological Chemistry (faculty appointments) • Internal Medicine – MMG, Pulmonary, Rheumatology (faculty appt; new BRCF core) • Microbiology and Immunology (faculty appointment) • NCRC (new core locations) • Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics (new BRCF core) • Cellular and Developmental Biology (new BRCF core) • MSA Units (Grants Office, MSIS, OoR)
Staffing Trends • In FY11, BRCF handled over $10.7 million in recharges, 31 shortcodes, 48 staff/faculty for six cores • Historically understaffed with less than 3 FTE (including Director) • The Dean has invested to provide 3 FTE to improve and establish infrastructure to accommodate more cores (Assoc Dir, external billing, account reconciliation) and implement new initiatives
Current Tactical Initiatives • Capital equipment fund for core instrumentation • Replace obsolete equipment • Introduce strategic new technology • Requests evaluated by BRCF Capital Equipment Committee • IT systems for billing (with MSIS) • Enhanced capability of adding new cores • Improved efficiency of existing core billing • Provide an IT framework for non-BRCF cores • Financial re-structure/remapping • Current structure created for small number of small cores • BRCF-wide customer relations and communications effort • Evaluating potential cores to bring into BRCF group
Opportunities for Collaboration & Synergy Characteristics of a Medical School Core: • Serves a broad range of faculty where a majority of users are from multiple departments rather than a single department • Enables better science by operationally being with the U-M (UMMS) walls or systems (scientific impact) • Has Core leadership dedicated to the strategic scientific vision of the core, and translating that vision into a business operation • Meets a regulatory requirement for the University • Operation is financially self-sustaining
Key Performance Indicators • Internal recharge revenue • External revenue • Number of services rendered • Number of laboratories served • Research impact (number of grants or projects involved, number of publications using core data) • Regularly review all-funds budgets to evaluate financial model and to identify financial trends
Benchmarked Data and Performance Many BRCF cores are nationally recognized Transgenic Animal Model Core – internationally recognized for expertise and quality (one of few to guarantee transgenic founders) DNA Sequencing Core – nationally recognized for expertise, size, quantity and quality of data obtained, price of services Biomedical Research Store – nationally recognized for size and efficiency of operation Flow Cytometry Core – nationally recognized for size and throughput