The mission of the ABRF is to advance core and research biotechnology laboratories through research, communication, and education. Consistent with this mission, and to strengthen groups drawn together by factors such as geographic region or specialty, the ABRF has implemented a new organizational substructure - ABRF Chapters and Affiliates.
Please visit our Affiliates and Chapters home page at: Affiliates and Chapters for further information, upcoming events and news about our ABRF partners! If you would like to contact a member of the Affiliates and Chapters committee with any questions or comments, please send an email to: acc@my.abrf.org.
ABRF Chapters
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, India
Midwest Association of Core Directors
Northeast Life Sciences Core Directors
West Coast Association of Shared Resource Directors
ABRF Affiliates
Canadian Cytometry Association - Association Canadienne de Cytometrie
MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society
Chapters
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), India
C-CAMP website
Goals
C-CAMP is a Department of Biotechnology (Government of India) initiative and is part of the Bangalore Bio-cluster. Founded in 2009, C-CAMP's mission is to act as an enabler of success in bioscience research and entrepreneurship by providing technology development, technology training, and technology services in state of the art technology platforms. C-CAMP is envisioned to be a major platform technology, industry-interaction and incubator unit. C-CAMP acts as the developer and provider of high-end technologies in life science to play the essential role of an enabler of scientific activity and entrepreneurship in the Indian scientific scenario. As an ABRF Chapter, C-CAMP hopes to facilitate new networking and professional opportunities among core facility and biotechnology personnel within the India/Southeast Asia region.
C-CAMP Technology Platforms include:
- Confocal and Fluorescence Imaging
- Flow Cytometry
- Molecular Characterization and Proteomics (Mass Spectrometry)
- High Throughput Screening
- Next Generation Sequencing and Genomics
- Protein Biology Core
- Transgenic Fly Facility
- Intellectual Property Management Office and Technology Transfer Office
Current Activities
One challenge that the scientific community in India is facing today is availability of expert manpower to efficiently use the high-end technology available in the country. Keeping this in mind, C-CAMP is providing technology training programs to generate a pool of experts who can proficiently utilize the high-end scientific technologies and hence, helps in scientific developments. At present, C-CAMP provides national hands-on training courses in the flow cytometry and Imaging fields. These courses involve expert faculty and provides access to high-end instrumentation for participants.
These courses are jointly organised by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) and fees apply. There is no restriction on the number of participants that may apply from a given organization and if more than one person registers from a particular organisation we give a discount on the fee!
Previous conferences and workshops
Website: http://www.ccamp.res.in/past-courses.html
Hands-on Basic Flow Cytometry Course – Dec 2009
The 2nd Bangalore Microscopy Course – Feb 2010
IP Awareness Seminar – March 2010
11th Indo-US Flow Cytometry workshop – Oct 2010
History
The C-CAMP/India ABRF Chapter has arisen from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, a federally funded centralized facility oriented organization, and scientists within C-CAMP. These scientists have been associated with ABRF individually during their prior stints in the US and hence, they see the value that an ABRF chapter could bring in for Indian Bioscience.
Organizational Structure
Taslim Saiyed, ABRF C-CAMP Chapter President
James Clement and Malali Gowda, ABRF C-CAMP Chapter co-Treasurers
Prof. S. Ramaswamy, CEO C/CAMP, Dean, The Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Midwest Association of Core Directors
MWACD website
Goals
The purpose of Midwestern Association of Core Directors (MWACD) is to foster closer interactions among core facilities and to sponsor conferences of research core facility directors. The goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for networking among life science core directors and managers, for core directors to interact with colleagues, share technical advice, and discuss the continuing challenges associated with the management and operation of shared research resources and technologies.
Other advantages include: a more intimate environment of a smaller meeting for greater interaction among participants; sessions are geared more towards interactive discussions rather than lectures; and travel and meeting expenses are significantly reduced. The organization and meetings are not intended to be exclusively confined to the Midwest region: all core directors and core organization managers are encouraged to join and to attend the meeting.
Current Activities
The 2011 MWACD meeting was held Thursday-Sunday, October 27th - 30th, 2011 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chicago.The meeting is an informal gathering to encourage personal interaction and networking, while providing content relevant to the successful management of high throughput technology facilities.Satellite meetings/talks on Thursday will focus on vendor technology presentations. Friday panels and talks will cover issues from national scientific perspectives to core management. Two invited talks will highlight new approaches in Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics. Breakout Sessions on Saturday will cover specific technologies/cores of most interest to our members based on our member survey. An optional core management workshop “micro-MBA” will be led by Steve Bobin Saturday afternoon through Sunday Morning.
History
The idea for the Midwest Association of Core Directors was modeled on the Northeast Regional Life Science Core Directors (NERLSCD) after several founders of MWACD met at the 2009 NERLSCD meeting. The MWACD received considerable support and encouragement for our inaugural meeting from members of NERLSCD and the ABRF.
The first meeting was held October 21-23, 2010 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Chicago. At that meeting the advisory committee was elected, the decision to apply to ABRF for Chapter membership was approved, and ABRF approval followed soon thereafter. Chicago and St. Louis were chosen as the locations for the next two meetings.
Organizational structure
William Hendrickson, MWACD President
University of Illinois at Chicago
E-mail: whend@uic.edu
Philip Hockberger, MWACD Treasurer
Northwestern University
E-mail: p-hockberger@northwestern.edu
Seth Crosby, MWACD Corporate Coordinator
Washington University School of Medicine,
E-mail: scrosby@watson.wustl.edu
Karen Staehling, MWACD Media and Surveys
Stowers Institute
E-mail: ksh@stowers.org
Kevin L. Knudtson
University of Iowa
E-mail: kevin-knudtson@uiowa.edu
Susan Meyn
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
E-mail: s.meyn@vanderbilt.edu
MWACD Support
Institutional support: Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Washington University.
Corporate support: Affymetrix, Agilent, Covance, DNAStar, Fluidigm, IDT, iLab Solutions, Illumina, Life Technologies, Partek, Nikon, Roche, Thermo Scientific
Northeast Life Sciences Core Directors
NERLSCD website
Goals
The Northeast Regional Life Sciences Core Directors (NERLSCD) meeting is a regional forum for core facility directors and mangers to network with colleagues, to learn about biotechnology advances and applications, and to discuss the challenges and results of implementing shared research resources.
Current Activities
Mark the date! NERLSCD 2012 will be held October 24-26, 2012 at the Mountain View Grand Resort, Whitefield, New Hampshire, hosted by Norris Cotton Cancer Center of Dartmouth Medical School.
History
The first meeting of NERLSCD (also often referred to as the NERDs meeting) was held six years ago at the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. Organized by a group of primarily long-time ABRFers and originally envisioned as a "beer and peanuts" type get-together of friends, the meeting was met with widespread regional enthusiasm and support. The first NERLSCD conference was a one-day event but has since expanded to two days, and in 2011, also included pre-meeting satellite workshops. Conference content includes core facility technology-focused breakout sessions as well as keynote and plenary speakers that present on a diverse set of topics relevant to core facility personnel. The meeting location is rotated among different institutions throughout the Northeast in order to facilitate access to attendees in different geographical locations and to stimulate fresh networking opportunities. Funding for the NERLSCD meeting is provided by sponsoring academic and non-profit institutions, registrations fees, and an NIH scientific conference grant. No commercial vendor support is accepted for the meeting in order to facilitate creation of a meeting environment that fosters informal and informative discussion and networking between core directors without influence from vendor representatives.
NERLSCD recently joined the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) as an ABRF Chapter. The Organizing Committee of NERLSCD made the decision to join the ABRF as a Chapter to take full advantage of the operational efficiencies available to it under the ABRF’s auspices. Furthermore, it is believed that formally recognizing the existing filial relationship between these organizations would promote a more complete and synergistic integration of their resources leading to increased benefits to all involved.
Past Meetings
2011 - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2010 - University of Massachusetts, Worcester, MA
2009 - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2008 - University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
2007 - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2006 - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Organizational Structure
Stephen Bobin (President)
Administrative Coordinator for Shared Resources
Norris Cotton Cancer Center
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH
Susanna Perkins (Treasurer)
Administrative Manager
Research Core Administration
Office of the Vice Provost for Research
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
Pamela Scott Adams
Manager of the Molecular Biology Core Facility
Trudeau Institute, Saranac Lake, NY
Michelle Detwiler
Shared Resource Administrator
Research Support Services
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
George Grills
Director of Operations of Core Facilities in the Life Sciences
Director of Advanced Technology Assessment
Life Sciences Core Laboratories Center
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Timothy Hunter
Assistant Director of the Translational Technologies Unit
Manager of the DNA Analysis Facility, Vermont Cancer Center
Manager of the UVM Microarray Facility, Vermont Genetics Network
UVM College of Medicine
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Peter Lopez
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology
Director of the OCS Core Flow Cytometry Facility
New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY
Katia Sol-Church
Co-Director of the DE-INBRE Centralized Research Instrumentation Core
Director of the Biomolecular Core Lab, Nemours Center for Pediatric Research
Senior Research Scientist, Biomedical Research Department
Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington DE
Theodore Thannhauser
Director, Functional and Comparative Proteomics Center
Research Chemist, Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health
USDA - Agricultural Research Station (USDA-ARS), Ithaca, NY
Sr. Research Associate, Biotechnology Program
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Regional Institutional Support - 2011
- Center for Functional Genomics SUNY at Albany
- Cornell University Life Sciences Core Laboratories Center
- Dartmouth COBRE Lung Biology Center
- Dartmouth Immunology COBRE
- Dartmouth Norris Cotton Cancer Center
- Delaware Biotechnology Institute
- HHMI-Janelia Farm Research Campus
- Jackson Laboratory
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine
- Nemours' Biomedical Research
- New Hampshire INBRE (NH-INBRE)
- NYU Langone Medical Center
- Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health (USDA-ARS)
- Rockefeller University
- Roswell Park Cancer Institute
- University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Vermont Genetics Network
- Vermont Lung Center
- Vermont Neuroscience COBRE
Federal Grant Funding
- National Institutes of Health
West Coast Association of Shared Resource Directors
WCASRD website
Goals
Today’s competitive research environments require complex resources to support cutting edge research programs. Shared research resource professionals are responsible for creating solutions to support current and future scientific communities which will enhance and accelerate technologies, applications, infrastructure and management resources. The WCASRD aims to create a regional group of professionals from research focused institutions who share an interest in the development, operation and advancement of innovative, cost effective and high-throughput technology services. Annual meetings will provide an opportunity for the group to share experiences and challenges and to form relationships with peers they can connect with throughout the year on topics of interest.
Current Activities
The inaugural 2011 West Coast Association of Shared Resource Directors (WCASRD) meeting was held Thursday-Friday October 27th & 28th, 2011 at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle. The keynote speaker was Dr. Leroy Hood, President and co-Founder of the Institute. The WCASRD meeting is intended to gather professionals in an informal environment to network and discuss topics related to shared research resource programs which are of common interest to the group.
Day One included an afternoon session and tour of the Institute’s facility. Following the afternoon session, the group will gather for an evening reception and poster session, followed by dinner, which is intended to be purely a social event.
Day Two included a series of speakers, facilitated discussions and parallel breakout sessions. Topics were selected based on a survey of interested attendees. Facilitated discussions were led by Committee members and participants. The goal of the meeting is to provide a platform that is focused on content and interaction in an environment that is comfortable but not extravagant. This year’s meeting was held on-site at ISB’s new research which is located in the heart of the revitalized South Lake Union neighborhood, and serves as the CORE to Seattle’s Life Sciences community as well as an abundance of resources for lodging, public transportation, food, drink and entertainment.
History
The West Coast Association of Shared Resource Directors group really grew out of the Midwest Association’s First Annual Meeting back in October 2010. A few of us (mostly from ISB), discussed the possibilities for a west coast regional group and were encouraged by the Midwest, East Coast and ABRF leadership to do so.
Organizational structure
Sean T. Clisham, WCASRD President
Institute for Systems Biology
E-mail: Sean.Clisham@systemsbiology.org
Julie Auger, WCASRD Treasurer
University of California at San Fransisco
E-mail: Julie.Auger@ucsf.edu
Noel Blake, ABRF Affiliates and Chapters Committee Liaison
Institute for Systems Biology
E-mail: Noel.Blake@systemsbiology.org
Caprice Rosato
Oregon State University
E-mail: rosatoc@cgrb.orgeonstate.edu
Affiliates
Canadian Cytometry Association - Association Canadienne de Cytometrie - CCA-ACC
CCA-ACC Website
Goals
The CCA-ACC serves the Canadian cytometry and light microscopy community. Created in 2005, the association's objectives are to encourage the sharing of knowledge regarding flow cytometry and light microscopy, to create a pan-Canadian network of people interested in these cutting edge technologies and to promote scientific exchange.
The goals of the CCA-ACC are to organize scientific meetings, symposia and workshops in the fields of cytometry and light microscopy. The purpose of these scientific meetings is to encourage networking within the Canadian cytometry and microscopy communities, between academic and corporate personnel, to raise money and to expend such funds to further the association’s mandate. In addition, we conduct educational workshops, lectures, seminars and also disseminate information, scientific reports, and statistical data to increase the public’s awareness and knowledge of analytical cytology.
Past Activities
3rd Cytometry and Microscopy Symposium, Nov 24-27, 2011, Toronto
2nd Cytometry Symposium, Jun 18-20, 2009, Montreal
Cell Cycle Workshop, Jul 14-15, 2008, Montreal
1st Cytometry Symposium, 2007, Montreal
Organizational structure
Laurence Lejeune, President
Director - Cytometry, Centre de recherche du CHUM, St-Luc Hospital
Claire Brown, Vice-President
Director - Imaging Facility, Life Sciences Complex, McGill University
Guillaume Lesage, Financial Officer
Administrator - Cell Imaging and Analysis Network, Dept. Biology, McGill University
Gabriel Lapointe, Administrative Officer
PhD Candidate – Biochemistry Department, Université de Montréal
Gisele Knowles, Administrative Officer
Cytometry Core Manager Sunnybrook Hospital Research Institute
Marie-Hélène Lacombe, Administrative Officer
Cytometry Core Manager - Dept. Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University
MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society - MCBIOS
MCBIOS website
Goals
The mission of the MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) is to foster networking and collaboration, and promote the professional development of our members.And as stated in the bylaws, we seek to advance the understanding of bioinformatics and computational biology, bring together scientists of various backgrounds and disciplines, facilitate the collaboration of researchers with similar or complementary backgrounds to solve biological, health, and/or medical problems, promote education, inform the general public on the results and implications of current research, and promote other activities that will contribute to the development of bioinformatics and computational biology. The Society will especially support, encourage, and mentor our Student Members.
Current Activities
The Ninth Annual MCBIOS Conference will be held in Oxford MS on February 17-18, 2012. Click here for additional details about the conference and registration information.
History
MCBIOS was formed in 2003 and holds a scientific conference annually, sponsored by one of the member state BIOS organizations.
- 2003 Little Rock, AR “Building Networks”.
- 2004 Little Rock, AR “Bioinformatics: A Systems Approach.”
- 2006 Baton Rouge LA "Bioinformatics: A Calculated Discovery"
- 2007 New Orleans LA “Computational Frontiers in Biomedicine”.
- 2008 Oklahoma City OK "Systems Biology - Bridging the Omics".
- 2009 Starkville, MS "Transformational Bioinformatics: Delivering Value from Genomes".
- 2010 Jonesboro, AR "Bioinformatics: Systems, Biology, Informatics and Computation".
- 2011 College Station, TX "Computational Biology and Bioinformatics for a New Decade."
Organizational structure
MCBIOS Board of Directors, as of MCBIOS VIII, April 2, 2011
Doris M. Kupfer Ph.D., President, Board Member thru 2013
Research Geneticist, Functional Genomics
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, FAA, Oklahoma City, OK
E-mail: doris.kupfer@faa.gov
Ed J. Perkins, Ph.D., President-Elect, Board Member thru 2014
Senior Research Scientist, Environmental Networks and Genetic Toxicology
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, MS
E-mail: Edward.J.Perkins@usace.army.mil
Ulisses Braga-Neto Ph.D., Past President, Board Member thru 2012
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
http://www.ece.tamu.edu/~ulisses/
E-mail: ulisses@ece.tamu.edu
Dennis Burian Ph.D., Treasurer, Board Member
Research Geneticist, Functional Genomics
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, FAA, Oklahoma City, OK
E-mail: dennis.burian@faa.gov
Richard Segall, Ph.D., Secretary, Board Member thru 2012
Associate Professor, Department of Computer & Information Technology
Arkansas State University
http://ittc-web.astate.edu/bio/public/detailed_bio_lite.php?bio_id=146
E-mail: rsegall@astate.edu
Publications
The Proceedings of the MCBIOS Conferences are published annually in a special issue of BMC Bioinformatics.
Sponsorship
MCBIOS receives support from the MidSouth Bioinformatics Center at UALR through the Bioinformatics Core of the The Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Arkansas INBRE) program from the National Institutes of Health (NIH),and from the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) through a grant from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
