Experts for Hire

NOTE: We highly recommend that scientists with an interest in working with the IGBB in any capacity register for a MyIGBB account. Registration is free, easy, and provides investigators with the most efficient and effective way of utilizing the IGBB.

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 RA 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 submits a request to meet/talk with an IGBB research associate via MyIGBB.
A qualified IGBB consultant then contacts the PI to discuss project goals, feasibility, and approaches. This consultation is free.
If the PI and the RA agree to a research plan, the RA 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 RA, a final quote will be sent to the PI for approval (via MyIGBB). 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 submit a MyIGBB HelpDesk ticket or contact us by phone or e-mail (see Contact).

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.

Gene ontology annotations and resources

High Impact Research

IGBB Authors:
Susan M. Bridges, Shane C. Burgess, Teresia J. Buza, Fiona M. McCarthy, Lakshmi Pillai

PUBLICATION YEAR: 2013
IMPACT FACTOR: 8.212
CITATION COUNT: 355

Blake JA, Dolan M, Drabkin H, Hill DP, Ni L, Sitnikov D, Bridges S, Burgess S, Buza T, McCarthy F, Peddinti D, Pillai L, Carbon S, Dietze H, Ireland A, Lewis SE, Mungall CJ, Gaudet P, Chisholm RL, Fey P, Kibbe WA, Basu S, Siegele DA, McIntosh BK, Renfro DP, Zweifel AE, Hu JC, Brown NH, Tweedie S, Alam-Faruque Y, Apweiler R, Auchinchloss A, Axelsen K, Bely B, Blatter MC, Bonilla C, Bougueleret L, Boutet E, Breuza L, Bridge A, Chan WM, Chavali G, Coudert E, Dimmer E, Estreicher A, Famiglietti L, Feuermann M, Gos A, Gruaz-Gumowski N, Hieta R, Hinz U, Hulo C, Huntley R, James J, Jungo F, Keller G, Laiho K, Legge D, Lemercier P, Lieberherr D, Magrane M, Martin MJ, Masson P, Mutowo-Muellenet P, O'Donovan C, Pedruzzi I, Pichler K, Poggioli D, Porras Millan P, Poux S, Rivoire C, Roechert B, Sawford T, Schneider M, Stutz A, Sundaram S, Tognolli M, Xenarios I, Foulger R, Lomax J, Roncaglia P, Khodiyar VK, Lovering RC, Talmud PJ, Chibucos M, Gwinn Giglio M, Chang HY, Hunter S, McAnulla C, Mitchell A, Sangrador A, Stephan R, Harris MA, Oliver SG, Rutherford K, Wood V, Bahler J, Lock A, Kersey PJ, McDowall MD, Staines DM, Dwinell M, Shimoyama M, Laulederkind S, Hayman T, Wang SJ, Petri V, Lowry T, D'Eustachio P, Matthews L, Balakrishnan R, Binkley G, Cherry JM, Costanzo MC, Dwight SS, Engel SR, Fisk DG, Hitz BC, Hong EL, Karra K, Miyasato SR, Nash RS, Park J, Skrzypek MS, Weng S, Wong ED, Berardini TZ, Li D, Huala E, Mi H, Thomas PD, Chan J, Kishore R, Sternberg P, Van Auken K, Howe D, Westerfield M (2013) Gene ontology annotations and resources. Nucleic Acids Research 41(D1): D530-D535.

DOI: 10.1093/nar/gks1050
EID: 2-s2.0-84874253819
PMID: 23161678

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ABSTRACT
The Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium (GOC, http://www.geneontology.org) is a community-based bio-informatics resource that classifies gene product function through the use of structured, controlled vocabularies. Over the past year, the GOC has implemented several processes to increase the quantity, quality and specificity of GO annotations. First, the number of manual, literature-based annotations has grown at an increasing rate. Second, as a result of a new 'phylogenetic annotation' process, manually reviewed, homology-based annotations are becoming available for a broad range of species. Third, the quality of GO annotations has been improved through a streamlined process for, and automated quality checks of, GO annotations deposited by different annotation groups. Fourth, the consistency and correctness of the ontology itself has increased by using automated reasoning tools. Finally, the GO has been expanded not only to cover new areas of biology through focused interaction with experts, but also to capture greater specificity in all areas of the ontology using tools for adding new combinatorial terms. The GOC works closely with other ontology developers to support integrated use of terminologies. The GOC supports its user community through the use of e-mail lists, social media and web-based resources. -¬ The Author(s) 2012.

More High Impact Papers

Dr. Nina Aboughanem

Associate Research Professor
FACULTY
email
(662) 325-7480
Clay Lyle 156

The IGBB is supported, in part, by the following units:

Missisippi Agricultural & Forestry Experiment Station - MAFES

Office of Research & Economic Development - ORED

Division of Agriculture, Forestry & Veterinary Medicine - DAFVM

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