FUNDS FOR BIOSCIENCE FACILITIES
BY CYNTHIA LEE
Today Staff Writer
To stay at the forefront of bioscience research and encourage the kind of cross-campus collaboration that has already given UCLA a competitive advantage in research, university leaders are offering to fund shared bioscience core facilities that will provide specialized technical support and advanced equipment.
Currently, researchers, students and staff throughout the campus share access to a number of bioscience core facilities that make available services and facilities that would be unaffordable and beyond the reach of individual laboratories.
In the DNA Microarray Core, for example, scientists share access to expensive robotic and imaging equipment for analysis of DNA and RNA samples.
In the UCLA-Department of Energy X-ray Crystallography Core Facility located in the Molecular Biology Institute, scientists can undergo training to use imaging equipment that can determine the 3-D atomic structures of proteins and other molecules for their experiments.
To help existing core facilities expand and to launch new cores for novel and developing technologies, the Chancellor’s Office is making available $1.3 million each year for the next five years for a total of $6.5 million.
“This funding program comes out of the recognition that the biosciences have become increasingly important to society in general and at UCLA in particular,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Daniel M. Neuman. Bioscience is an area that encompasses UCLA’s medical school and the life sciences in the College of Letters and Sciences, as well as researchers from engineering, the physical sciences and other fields as integral partners in bioscience research.
“As we move forward in this direction at a time of enormous budgetary constraints, we thought it wise to encourage a shared approach to core facilities,” Neuman said. “So we’ve developed a committee structure to evaluate proposals, and we expect to announce our first awards this July.”
Christopher Evans, director of the Brain Research Institute, is chair of the Biosciences Core Facilities Committee which will review proposals submitted by faculty and core facility directors.
“We’re asking faculty to develop or update cores that are needed to drive research in the biosciences at UCLA forward and also benefit a broad base of users,” Evans said.
“As the technologies change, cores become redundant or outdated, and new technologies or equipment become essential for scientific progress.”
Evans’ committee of 12 bioscience faculty from the medical and engineering schools, the cancer center, psychology, chemical engineering and other fields will then send its recommendations to the Council of Bioscience Resources. The council, comprising leaders in the UCLA bioscience community, will make the final decision on how the money will be spent.
Faculty have until June 1 to apply for funds that can cover the cost of equipment, renovation, operation and Ph.D.-level staff to work at the facility. Cores that will be funded must be open and available to all bioscience faculty at UCLA.
A complete list of the criteria as well as online applications can be found at www.bcf.ucla.edu. To see the list of existing core facilities, go to: http://dgsom.healthsciences.ucla.edu/research/institution/cores.
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