While the IGBB Service Center can perform low-risk, fairly routine biomolecular tasks on a fee-per-service basis, some of your research goals may require (or would most readily be completed with) the help of professionals trained in advanced procedures and/or data analysis techniques. The IGBB research associates, most of whom have Ph.D. degrees and/or many years of practical experience, can be hired to conduct research tasks associated with their specialties. For example, let's say you need an expert in RNA isolation and RNAseq to help you complete a portion of a research project. You could train a student or postdoc to become proficient in these research tasks, but you may not have the experience, time, or money to train someone. Moreover, you may not have the instrumentation you need to do the research correctly. This is where the IGBB can help. Rather than training someone new, you can hire a highly skilled IGBB scientist to perform the research for you. The savings in cost and time is tremendous! The process works like this:
- The principal investigator (PIs) interested in determining whether
the IGBB can help them in their research/analyses contacts one of the IGBB's Research Leads.
- The Research Lead(s) sets up a meeting with the PI to discuss project goals, feasibility, and
approaches. This consultation is free.
- If the PI and the Research Lead agree to a research plan, the
Research Lead
will generate an itemized quote for the PI that includes salary, fringe, reagent
costs, machine costs, etc. The duration of the employment agreement depends upon the needs of the customer and can range from a few hours to several months. In addition, IGBB employment agreements can cover fairly low weekly time committments spread out over long stretches (e.g., a customer may hire an IGBB employee to work on a project 5 hours a week for four years). Overhead charges and/or HPC² retainage costs may or may not be
applicable. Once a plan is set between a PI and an IGBB Research Lead, a final quote will be sent to the PI for approval. Once the PI approves the quote, work can begin.
If you don't have funding in hand, but are working on a grant proposal, you can include the participation of an IGBB expert-for-hire in your proposal budget (note: you must make such agreements with the expert-for-hire through a MyIGBB itemized quote). To discuss a hiring an IGBB expert, please contact one of the IGBB's Research Leads by phone or e-mail.
NOTE: PIs are asked to consider whether the participation of an IGBB employee in a project merits that employee's inclusion as a co-author on a resulting manuscript(s). The decision ultimately lies with the PI. However, the IGBB encourages IGBB staff and faculty involved in
Proposal Partnerships and
Experts for Hire to discuss/negotiate co-authorship with PIs before starting work on a project.
Dielectrophoretic characterization of erythrocytes: positive ABO blood typesIGBB Authors:
Shane C. BurgessPUBLICATION YEAR:
2008IMPACT FACTOR:
3.872CITATION COUNT:
72Srivastava SK, Daggolu PR, Burgess SC, Minerick AR (2008) Dielectrophoretic characterization of erythrocytes: positive ABO blood types.
Electrophoresis 29(24): 5033-5046.
DOI:
10.1002/elps.200800166EID:
2-s2.0-59349107515PMID: 19130588
DOWNLOAD PDFABSTRACTDielectrophoretic manipulation of erythrocytes/red blood cells is investigated as a tool to identify blood type for medical diagnostic applications. Positive blood types of the ABO typing system (A+, B+, AB+ and O+) were tested and cell responses quantified. The dielectrophoretic response of each blood type was observed in a platinum electrode microdevice, delivering a field of 0.025V(pp)/microm at 1 MHz. Responses were recorded via video microscopy for 120 s and erythrocyte positions were tabulated at 20-30 s intervals. Both vertical and horizontal motions of erythrocytes were quantified via image object recognition, object tracking in MATLAB, binning into appropriate electric field contoured regions (wedges) and statistical analysis. Cells of O+ type showed relatively attenuated response to the dielectrophoretic field and were distinguished with greater than 95% confidence from all the other three blood types. AB+ cell responses differed from A+ and B+ blood types likely because AB+ erythrocytes express both the A and B glycoforms on their membrane. This research suggests that dielectrophoresis of untreated erythrocytes beyond simple dilution depends on blood type and could be used in portable blood typing devices.
Dr. Mohit VermaPostdoctoral Associate
BIOCOMPUTING
emailPace 101
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