Inside
- Your ABRF
- ABRF Insights
- ABRF Award
- JBTeasers
- Association News
- Research Group Reports
- Research Group Studies
- iABRF - Canadian Cytometry Association
- Features
- Globe Trekking for ABRF
- Consumer Genetics
- Mass Spec Cook Book
- Lean Six Sigma
- Take it Back to the Lab
- Roche/454 GS Flx+
- What's on Tap? Software
- Events
- WCASRD - Seattle
- MWACD - Chicago
- NERLSCD - Ithaca
- ACC-CCA - Toronto
- C-CAMP - Bangalore
- ABRF 2012 - Orlando
- Tidbits
- Fonts for the Masses
- Editorial Board
- Michelle Detwiler
- Brian Hampton
- Seth Crosby
- Bryan Fleming
- Jay Fox
- Adam Hawkridge
- Elke Küster–Schöck
- Executive Board
- Anthony Yeung
(President) - Arnie Falick
(Secretary-Treasurer) - David Friedman
(President-Elect) - Karen Jonscher
- Tom Neubert
- Jack Simpson
- George Grills
- Brett Phinney
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ABRF Insights
Thank you for the opportunity to serve the ABRF membership. We work in core facilities because we like the freedom of research, the fun of contributing at the cutting edge, the challenge of excelling at ever-changing technologies, and the networking to make progress efficient. However, ABRF is not just genomics or proteomics, but represents all the specialties among the many core facilities in different scientific disciplines. The world of core facilities has been changing in response to global shifts. Our prosperity depends on everyone’s participation to become evermore agile. We can do these at all levels of the core economy by vertical transparency among the technicians, managers, core directors, core administrators and senior administration in each institution, and link them across institutions to maximize core facility efficiency. Knowledge to command our environment and ability for mobility are contemporary ways to assure a strong ABRF with an endless supply of leaders at all levels.
I joined ABRF in 1995, as suggested by my core administrator Bob Spallone. By then I had been working on automated DNA synthesis for 8 years as a core director and doing basic research as a Principal Investigator (PI). I was trying to make oligonucleotides good enough for my DNA repair studies. Joining ABRF and NARG made that successful for which I am grateful. Scottie Adams recruited me to NARG. My first article in JBT as a NARG member was 1999 with Kathryn Lilley and Jay Fox among the co-authors. Did you know that they were NARG members? ...continued inside
Breaking News: the Roche/454 GS FLX+: Changes, Tips, and Early Access Results
In June 2007, life as we knew it in the DNA lab changed instantly: our first Roche GS FLX system arrived. Two instruments later, after Titanium upgrades, beta testing of the FLX+ system, and now Early Access, we’re on the verge of the full commercial launch of FLX+. The energy here and from our customers is almost palpable—everyone is excited for it’s arrival.
...continued inside
The Future is Now - Consumer Genetics Conference
This conference was all about the future of whole genome sequencing but they were talking present tense. The technology has scooted ahead of the science and researchers are scrambling to keep up. The deluge of data looks daunting but like cutting down a cornfield to play baseball, build it and they will come. Sequencing of whole genomes for the unwashed masses is coming and will be a driving force behind the future of Next Gen Sequencing. ...continued inside
Sir Alec John Jeffries Received 2011 ABRF Award
He was one of the first to discover inherited variation in human DNA, then went on to invent DNA fingerprinting, showing how it could be used to resolve issues of identity and kinship. His current work concentrates on developing new approaches to analyzing variation and mutation in human chromosomes.
The ABRF has been recognizing pioneers in biomolecular technologies with this award since 1994. ...continued inside
ABRF International
As the newsletter’s “iABRF” editor, I am excited to have been part of bringing the first international Affiliate to ABRF – the Canadian Cytometry Association / Association Canadienne de Cytometrie, a.k.a CCA-ACC. The group not only broadens our geographical reach, it also brings in connections to technologies that have traditionally been underrepresented within ABRF – flow cytometry and light microscopy. ...continued inside
Research Group Reports
Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG) - More to think about than phosphopeptides
The Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG) has developed a comprehensive standard for the analysis of several classes of PTMs, a synthetic mixture of 70 modified tryptic peptides mixed at roughly equimolar concentration and provided either in the presence or absence of a tryptic digest of six proteins from which the sequences are derived. ...continued inside
Nucleic Acids Research Group (NARG) - Evaluating DNA methylation profiles across degraded samples
Epigenetic modifications are now accepted as being responsible for a wide variety of human diseases including cancer and autoimmune disorders. These modifications do not change the DNA sequence per sebut rather the chromatin structure, which affects the readout of the DNA sequence. The Nucleic Acids research group has designed this year’s study towards evaluating DNA methylation across samples that are flash frozen, formalin fixed paraffin embedded, degraded and FFPE. ...continued inside
Take it Back to the Lab
Okay, if you're like me you are constantly on the lookout for useful tools that will not only make your core facility more efficient, but do not cost an arm and a leg as well. Over the years I've come across a number of different software tools that are not only cheap (some are even free) but are incredibly useful. ...continued inside