Highlights in the History of ABRF

by John W. Crabb (W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center)

• 1986
  • A Research Resource Facility Satellite Meeting, organized by Donna Atherton, Audree Fowler, Rusty Kutny, Ron Niece, and Alan Smith, was held in conjunction with the Sixth International Conference on Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis in Seattle, WA.
• 1987
  • A second Research Resource Facility Meeting was held at the First Symposium of the Protein Society in San Diego, CA. The organizers above identified themselves as the Research Resource Facility Group. Ken Williams joined the group.
  • The first core facilities operations survey was conducted.
• 1988
  • A Satellite Symposium was held at the FASEB Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.
  • The first set of protein sequence and amino acid analysis samples were distributed to 103 core facilities. Annual ABRF protein sequence and amino acid analysis studies have been carried out ever since.
  • A Satellite Meeting was also held in conjunction with the Protein Society in San Diego, CA. Annual ABRF meetings continue to be held with Protein Society Symposia.
  • The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) was formally organized.
  • The first election of officers was held. Donna Atherton, John Crabb, Audree Fowler, Elizabeth Fowler, Ron Niece, and Ken Williams were elected as the 1989 ABRF Executive Board. Annual election of two Board members per year has continued to date.
  • The ABRF conducted an instrumentation survey of core facilities.
  • The ABRF received a small National Science Foundation grant.
• 1989
  • The ABRF incorporated in the state of Delaware.
  • An ABRF Workshop, "Evaluating Protein Sequence and Amino Acid Analysis Data from Core Facilities" was held at the ASBMB/ASCB joint meeting in San Francisco, CA.
  • Separate ABRF research committees for Protein Sequence and Amino Acid Analysis were formed.
  • Ron Niece was elected as the first ABRF President, Beth Fowler as Secretary/Treasurer.
  • An ABRF Survey Committee was formed, which continues to carry out annual surveys of core facility operations and activities.
  • A corporate sponsor program was initiated and eight companies supported ABRF in the initial year of the program.
• 1990
  • Alan Smith and David Speicher were elected to the Executive Board, replacing Audree Fowler and Donna Atherton.
  • ABRF News was created under the guidance of editor Dave Speicher. Three issues were published in l990 followed by quarterly issues in subsequent years.
  • An ABRF session was held at the Eighth International Conference on Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis in Kiruna, Sweden.
  • NSF awarded ABRF a three-year grant to support research activities.
  • Two categories of membership, Directors and Associates, were defined and membership dues were initiated to contribute toward fiscal stability.
• 1991
  • Ray Paxton and Paul Matsudaira were elected to the Executive Board, replacing Ron Niece and Ken Williams.
  • Dave Speicher was elected President.
  • An ABRF Peptide Synthesis/Mass Spectrometry Research Committee was formed and initiated annual membership-wide studies.
  • The ABRF organized the symposium "State of the Art Biotechnology: From the Present to the Future" at the FASEB Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
  • ABRF established a business office with Lauren Kim as part-time Business Manager.
• 1992
  • Ron Niece and Steve Carr were elected to the Executive Board, replacing Beth Fowler and John Crabb.
  • Ray Paxton was elected Secretary/Treasurer.
  • The ABRF organized the symposium "Recent Advances in the Detection and Identification of Subtle Structural Alterations in Proteins and Nucleic Acids," at the ASBMB/Biophysical Society joint meeting in Houston, TX.
  • Greg Grant replaced Paul Matsudaira on the Executive Board.
  • Ken Williams assumed the Editorship of ABRF News.
  • ABRF organized the poster session for the Protein Society Meeting.
  • An ABRF session was held at the Ninth International Conference on Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis in Otsu, Japan.
  • ABRF contracted with FASEB to provide expanded Business Office and membership services.
  • Two new committees, an Education Committee and a Nucleic Acid Research Committee, were formed and initiated activities.
• 1993
  • Lowell Ericsson and Dan Marshak were elected to the Executive Board, replacing Alan Smith and Dave Speicher.
  • Greg Grant was elected President.
  • The ABRF organized the symposium "Understanding Biological Macromolecules: Cutting Edge Techniques" at the ASBMB/ACS-DBC joint meeting in San Diego, CA.
  • The ABRF Annual Meeting immediately before the Protein Society meeting in San Diego was expanded to a full day. In addition, the ABRF co-sponsored a workshop on peptide libraries and organized the Protein Society poster sessions for the second year.
• 1994
  • The Beckman-ABRF Award was established to recognize outstanding contributions to the development of methodology and instrumentation technology in the biological sciences. Nobel laureate Frederick Sanger was selected as the first awardee.
  • The ABRF Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA was expanded to contain six videotaped workshops, a poster session, the ABRF Research Committee reports, and the Beckman-ABRF Award lecture. The ABRF again organized the poster sessions at the Protein Society Meeting.
  • Tom Andersen and Elizabeth Fowler were elected to the ABRF Executive Board, replacing Steve Carr and Ron Niece.
  • John Rush assumed the Editorship of ABRF News.
  • Good Laboratory Practices Committee and Internal Protein Sequence Research Subcommittee were formed.
  • The ABRF electronic mailing list became a significant core facility communication resource. The ABRF Biogopher service was initiated.
  • ABRF/ASBMB Educational Affairs Symposium "Innovative Techniques for Biomolecular Research" was held at the ASBMB Meeting in Washington, DC.
  • ABRF Symposium "Opportunities for Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology Core Facilities" was held at the ASMS Meeting in Chicago, IL.
  • ABRF Symposium "Identification of Post-Translational Modifications" was held at the Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis Meeting in Snowbird, UT.
• 1995
  • DOE awarded ABRF a three-year research grant.
  • ABRF News Editorial Board was expanded.
  • ABRF/ASBMB Educational Affairs Symposium "Current Techniques in DNA Chemistry" was held at the ASBMB Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
  • ABRF Symposium was held in Davos, Switzerland in conjunction with the Protein Society, First European Symposium.
  • Tenth ABRF Annual Meeting was held in conjunction with the Protein Society Meeting in Boston, MA. ABRF organized the poster session for the Protein Society Meeting and accepted a record 678 abstracts.

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