ABRF 2020 Empowering Team Science

ABRF 2020 Empowering Team Science, represents the collaborative energy of technology, scientific research and core leadership, and is THE annual conference for core administrators and operations managers. Our partner vendors, representing an array of technology and applications, will host exhibit booths as well as the popular technology showcases and networking events. These activities provide in-depth education and networking opportunities not always available at other meetings. 

The Core Admin Sessions for 2020 will have a strong focus on multidisciplinary research to ensure we are all well-versed to drive collaborative research. These topical sessions are dynamic and provide ample opportunity for clarity and candor about the care and feeding of cores. And these sessions are not just for core administrators! We hope our sessions intrigue and enlighten the entire ABRF community. 

SATURDAY

After a full day of Satellite Workshops on Saturday (and there are some excellent offerings to choose from!), come to the ABRF New Members Meeting! Welcome new members and then head to the Opening Session to meet the chairs! Andy Chitty, ABRF President will open the 2020 meeting with introductions to those who lead the Committee, followed by Chris Mason, emcee extraordinaire, and all the ABRF Research Groups. Often described as the lifeblood of ABRF, this session promises to be a dynamic and insightful compendium of the RG contributions to the advancement of bio-science as we know it today.

SUNDAY

Day 1 dawns with Empowering Team Science 101: collaborating across boundaries, a multidisciplinary session about our core technologies – imaging, cytometry, genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics. This promises to be an excellent primer for core administrators. Following the Imaging Plenary, the core admin track welcomes Chris Gregory, David Blum, and Rebecca Davies from the Committee for Core Rigor and Reproducibility (CCoRRe) in Building Robust Quality Management Systems in Core Labs (GLP, GMP and QA Best Practices). If you are considering QMS to address scientific rigor in your cores, do not miss this session!

After lunch, Rand Haley and Sam Macintosh lead a panel of speakers who have focused on sustainability and regional resource sharing in Planning for Core Sustainability and Addressing Usage Challenges: Lessons from Core Research Facilities Seeded by NIH IDeA Funding. The NIH IDeA mechanisms serve as model systems for exploring how cores—and the institutions in which they are established—think about planning for the sustainable operations of their cores after NIH funding and creating regional resourcing. 

Want to learn about science policy and its impact on shared resources? Come meet Yvette Seger, Director of Science Policy at FASEB! Yvette and her team brought to publication the FASEB Sustainability and the Maximizing Shared Research Resources Reports, instrumental in initiating discussion and supporting decisions for shared resource cores on campuses across the country. In this session she will report on these and other science policy issues impacting shared resource cores and core scientists - sustainability, rigor and reproducibility, training and career development, diversity and inclusion, and data sharing, the true deliverable for all cores. 

Closing out the day, and still looking for a mentor? Come join the Career Development Committee for some fast-paced SPEED MENTORING!   

MONDAY

Day 2 promises more great sessions on empowerment, and starts with the first session on entrepreneurism is a path to sustainability, with The Entrepreneurial Core Director, with Phil Hockberger, Claudius Mondoma and Adam Milne of BioLabs. And don’t miss Dr. George Church’s lecture at 10:00! A scientist for all omics, he will receive the ABRF Award for his outstanding contributions to technologies for reading writing and editing ‘omes.  This will be followed by the Poster sessions, providing opportunities for one-on-one discussion with colleagues and vendors about new methods, techniques, and business planning. 

After the posters and lunch, Successful Program Grant Proposals. Jay Fox and a talented team brings the best of the best to writing Program project grants, with the Cancer Center Shared Resource Grants, immediately followed by Administrating Cores Supported by Multiple Funding Sources, with Heather Richards, Justine Karungi, Susan Meyn providing a pragmatic approach to managing those multiple funding sources. 

And don’t go anywhere yet! The last day of the meeting (Day 3) is all about working together.   You asked for it - a full day of shared programming!! The day starts with There's no "I" in Core: Administrators and Scientists Talk, promises to be enlightening to all ABRFers- how to get past individual perceptions and get to shared goals for the team.  We’re delighted to welcome Joshua Denny, Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who will tell us about the NIH All of Us Research Program, expanding our understanding of precision medicine, and the role of scientists, shared research resources and national programs in data management, data sharing and open science. 

This will be a terrific lead in to the next session Journals, ABRF and You: Partners Addressing Rigor and Reproducibility, an open discussion with journal editors organized by the CCoRRe. This session grew out of a conversation about how core scientists can promote reproducibility in partnership with journals, and will provide a gap analysis and identify the path going forward. 

After lunch and the ABRF Awards, Beyond Spatial Transcriptomics: Tissue Systems Biology, with Cindy Loomis and a panel of experts who will provide the latest on a new frontier - multiparameter molecular tissue based technologies for quantification of transcripts and proteins in intact tissue. Your institution will want to know how to do this!

Our last session of the day is Collective Leadership: What do Aboriginal Tribes and Native Americans have to do with Shared Facilities? Nicole White provides lessons in leadership, collective vs hierarchical styles, and how to develop a system of leadership for all team levels.

 The ABRF Members meeting will round out the day, followed by a poolside Closing Reception. So and pack your sunglasses and sunscreen - see you in Palm Springs!