The latest news on ABRF Events & Activities
June 1, 2022
  • President’s Message – Let’s Connect

  • Data Sharing and Management Plans: Input Needed

  • ABRF Member Spotlight – Rena Lapidus

  • Regional Chapter Meetings in June – SEASR and MAD SSCi

  • ABRF Award for Outstanding Contributions to Biomolecular Technologies – Final Call for Nominations

  • Thank You to ABRF’s 2022 Platinum Sponsors

  • ABRF Update - Share Your Story

Message from the President 
Hello ABRFer’s,

It is hard to believe yet another academic year is coming to an end for many of us. This past year was very productive for the ABRF and featured an annual meeting in Palm Springs that allowed our member to reconnect face-to-face and virtually. The opportunities to network and connect with our fellow members is at the core of our organization. In order to help facilitate networking and connection between our members, the ABRF has just launched a new web- and app-based tool. This tool will allow our members to create focused “communities” to discuss and share ideas about instrument operation, core operations, protocols, new technologies, etc. in a safe and respectful manner. I encourage everyone to visit the Connected Core Community web page and set up a profile and begin exploring this tool. Please note that we’ve activated a few of the Communities for ABRF Committees and Research Groups, with more to be launched shortly, including the all-member Community.
I look forward to Connecting with all of you!
 
Kevin Knudtson
ABRF President
Data Sharing and Management Plans: Input Needed
A newly formed working group has been established and they need your help! The Data Sharing Working Group is striving to answer your questions for the implementation of the NIH Data Sharing and Management Plan that goes into effect January 25, 2023.
How can you help? Here are three pieces of information that we are seeking from ABRF members and their colleagues:
 
  • Share your Data Management and Sharing Policies from your Organization. Kindly email your Data Policies to [email protected] Feel free to deidentify or blind your organizations name.

  • Take some time to review the Dataworks! online Data Management Plan Tool. This tool creates a template of the NIH Data Sharing and Management Plan required to be submitted with each project grant. We need your help to review the tool, how it works, what questions you may feel need improvement, and if anything is unclear or confusing. We ask you complete a template and submit your comments into this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AYLG2_MdHOMm4I6ZExPufCd6hN3JlqtSpu-ImPx1yuU/edit?usp=sharing 

  • Metadata! Do you work with metadata? Do you have knowledge of its onotlogy? Please send any references you may have so we can begin to build a metadata library and work on developing this topic of metadata more.

  • Institutional Implementation Plan Does your institution have an implementation plan for the new NIH requirement? Do you have concerns about the implementation of this new requirement?

  • Consider what your organization would like to know or have as a resource to reduce the administrative burden to help PI's put together their DMP better.

  • What information can we develop as a group to collate this information, so everyone has a toolkit or one-stop shop to help support their needs? In addition, some FAQs would be helpful.


If you would like to become a member of this working group, please contact [email protected]

Member Spotlight:
Rena Lapidus
Director of Translational Core Lab
University of Maryland School of Medicine

My path to becoming a core director has been unconventional. After graduating with a BA in Chemistry, I worked for Genzyme for two years. There, I realized that I needed a PhD if I wanted to direct a lab, but I had a plan to return to industry. After completing a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins Medical School where I studied the epigenetics of breast cancer, I returned to industry.  I worked for one company with three different names (two acquisitions) for 13 years developing novel drugs for cancer and chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. After the last acquisition, the company closed its doors, and I was hired to run a Core Lab called the Translational Laboratory Shared Service (TLSS) at UMSOM in the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. Little did I know that being the biologist on multiple discovery projects in industry would provide great experience to becoming a Core director. The TLSS supports principal investigators by offering in vitro and in vivo cancer models and by supporting early Phase clinical trials. Pretty cool and truly translational! In the last 14 years, I have modeled many different types of cancer in cells and in mice in the hopes of discovering new targets and novel agents. Importantly, at least two of the projects I have worked on have led to clinical trials; translational!

When I had attended my local ABRF Chapter (MAD SSCi) meetings or the national meetings, I felt that there was a big gap in what was offered - totally missing Cores who work with animals. Silly me, I mentioned it to Nick Ambulos who is on the ABRF Executive board. We discussed how Animal-focused cores could greatly benefit from the strength of ABRF, and he suggested that I poll Core Directors whose Cores involve animals
(e.g., animal imaging, transgenic, behavioral, CRISPR, oncology) to see if there was interest in a support network. Yes, there was interest! This led to my developing a pre-conference workshop, “Working with Animals in Research Workshop” for the upcoming Mid-Atlantic chapter meeting this June 14-17th. Our hope is that this will help establish animal-focused cores as a new area of support for ABRF. We will discuss the importance of using animals in research and why cores are a necessary place to conduct this research. We will also discuss the regulatory aspects of working with animals and other unique features like maintaining a pathogen free environment and why rigor and reproducibility while doing animal research is especially challenging. Hopefully, if all goes well, ABRF will consider offering sessions for cores who work with animals at other chapter meetings and at the national meeting.  Please consider joining us for this animal workshop, and the rest of the MADSSCI meeting!

ABRF Regional Chapter Meetings in June

SEASR – June 8-10 – Nashville, TN

Plan to join your ABRF colleagues in Nashville for the first ABRF Chapter meeting this year. The meeting will feature:

  • 3 keynote speakers and 5 concurrent scientific and administrative sessions;
  • Vanderbilt and Meharry core tours
  • Professional development workshop on June 8th
 
The program committee is still accepting entries for Poster Abstracts and Travel Awards

Register here. Reserve your hotel room here.
MAD-SSCi – June 15-17 – Baltimore, MD

Join us as we return to Baltimore!

MAD SSCi 2022 will be a collaborative meeting with the FASEB Committee on Shared Research Resources. It will take place June 16-17, 2022, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. In addition to the fantastic science and development of the FASEB report, it will feature a pre-meeting Business Skills Workshop on June 14 & 15, a pre-conference workshop on the importance of animal models in research on June 15, and various sponsor user group meetings.

Register here.  Reserve your hotel room here.
ABRF Award for Outstanding Contributions to Biomolecular Technologies – Nominations due by Friday, June 3
The ABRF Award Committee welcomes your nominations for the 2022 ABRF Award to recognize scientists who have made unique contributions to technologies and methodologies that have significantly advanced biomolecular research. The Award will be presented at the 2023 ABRF Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
Recognizing ABRF 2022 Platinum Sponsors
ABRF appreciates the exceptional support from its 2022 Platinum Sponsors:
ABRF Update - Share Your Story
If you have other contributions for ABRF Update, please submit them online or send your information to ABRF to include in the next issue.
If you have information for future ABRF Updates to share with your ABRF colleagues, please send your contributions to ABRF Updates to be included in an upcoming issue.