Learn more about how Shared Resources can assist with your research endeavors at a Shared Resources Workshop.
The Shared Resources portfolio provides:
- Easy and affordable access to technology that cannot be supported by individual labs. The cost of such instruments and services is usually prohibitive for individual laboratories or even for most individual departments. Thus, there is an economy of scale and justification for purchasing an expensive high-end or high-throughput instrument for shared use by a research community.
- Essential technical support for the operation and maintenance of specialized equipment. A professional staff can usually offer services for an instrument at a cost that is far less than that for an individual laboratory performing a similar analysis, even with access to the same instrument. The staff can be expertly trained to perform a particular service in the most efficient and cost-effective way, and can also analyze samples in batches in a well-ordered queue.
- Centralized expert consultation. Due to the amount of time involved in the development of many of the associated techniques, it is not always practical for researchers who are presented with a new analytical challenge to develop the necessary expertise unless it becomes an ongoing part of their research. This can be circumvented by having the instrumentation and the necessary techniques that are required to use it readily available from a centralized source, allowing the researchers to gain their information in a timely manner and move on to the next research question.
- Personnel essential for fulfilling legal and regulatory compliance. Having a professional staff oversee instrumentation allows routine maintenance and avoids potential problems with misuse or neglect by untrained personnel.
- Administrative coordination for successful operation of resources. One of the most important services a Shared Resource can offer is to provide the intellectual and technical resources that can assist the investigator in designing and conducting the proper experiment, preparing the appropriate samples for analysis, analyzing them in the most appropriate way, and assisting in correctly interpreting the results. This latter function is of even greater importance where consultation is the primary product of the resource.
- Collaboration on publications, as outlined in the Cancer Center's Authorship Guidelines.
Associate Director: Craig R. Tomlinson, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Administrative Coordinator: Stephen A. Bobin
