ABRF: Publish Like a Pro, Strategies for Writing a Technical Paper
2026-01-15 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Publish Like a Pro: Strategies for Writing a Technical Paper
Guide to Writing a Technical Scientific Paper: How to get started and what is involved

January 15, 2026
12:00 – 1:00 pm ET
Register here

Are you interested in publishing your work, including the methods and techniques used in your shared resource/facility, but don’t know where to start or where to get help?

Could you benefit from expert assistance to advance your ideas to a final publication?

Join us in January for this valuable session to learn more about how to raise your profile and advance your career by publishing in ABRF’s Journal of Biomolecular Techniques (JBT).

Preliminary Agenda and takeaways: A scientific paper is a structured argument based on evidence, designed to contribute new knowledge and advancement to a field. A well-organized manuscript facilitates understanding, evaluation, and potential replication by peer reviewers and subsequent researchers, engaging them through a logical narrative from the research question and methodology to the findings and their significance. Publishing serves to disseminate knowledge and establish expertise, connects individuals with peers in their field, and fosters collaboration and professional development. This webinar will address the following topics:

What is needed (data) to publish
The key components of a scientific paper and what information to include in each
How to start writing
Selecting a target journal (each reflects content based on its readership)
General Writing Principles

For more than 25 years, JBT has offered ABRF members the opportunity to share their work with the broader research community, without page charges or color charges. All JBT content is indexed and referenced in PubMed Central, providing wider visibility and citations for your valuable research.

Applications for CFAC Core Travel Awards Due
2026-01-31 08:00 - 17:00
Travel Award Details
Applications are open through January 31, 2026, with funding decisions expected within the first week of February. These grants are available to core directors and staff for conference travel occurring through July 2026.
We strongly encourage those interested in attending the Association for Biomedical Resource Facilities (ABRF) annual meeting on March 28-31 to apply. This conference offers high-value opportunities for our community, including:

Pre-Meeting Workshops: Focused on Lean Management, Data Analysis/Visualization, and Nextflow for bioinformatics.

Core Management & Technology Sessions: Daily agendas tailored to both leadership and technical specialties and “mini workshops” hosted throughout the meeting

Networking: Poster sessions, lightning talks, and opportunities to connect with the broader core community.

Register for ABRF 2026 and check out the full schedule here: ABRF Annual Meeting Registration

Relational Leadership Institute Training
We are also continuing our partnership with the Relational Leadership Institute. Through the Travel Award program, we are offering a select number of core directors and managers the opportunity to attend spring or early summer training sessions at no cost.
These sessions are held in person. We ask that you review the program dates and apply only if you are confident you can attend the full schedule. If you are interested but unsure if this training is the right fit, please reach out. Several of your peers participated in a pilot of this program last year and this past fall and can offer perspective on the value it provided.
How to Apply
For full application instructions and program details, please visit the official program page:
CFAC Travel Award Program Website

ABRF Operations Management Software Discussion
2026-02-03 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-03-03 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-04-07 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-05-05 16:00 - 17:00, 2026-06-02 16:00 - 17:00
ABRF Lab Operations Management Software Discussion

4:00 – 5:00 pm ET
Register here

Join us for the monthly ABRF Lab Operations Management Software Discussion, a recurring forum held on the first Tuesday of each month, bringing together lab operations professionals to explore software tools and best practices. Join us in January for our next topic:

Using Forms to Automate SRR Workflows- 2 case studies:
1. Roxann Ashworth with Johns Hopkins University will present on how forms and related questions automate invoicing and support downstream needs for efficiency.
2. Aaron Larson with Seattle Children’s Research Institute will review how PowerBI automations improve internal workflows and downstream advanced data analytics.

Following a brief recap of these updates, the session will open up for Q&A and discussion, giving attendees the opportunity to share feedback, ask questions, and connect with peers.

Don’t miss this chance to stay informed and engaged with the latest in lab operations software.

CFAC Spring RFA Applications Due
2026-02-20
The Core Facilities Advocacy Committee (CFAC) is excited to announce the opening of the Spring 2026 RFA for core facilities. Please read all the information below.

This request can be used for general core needs, equipment requests, and method development requests. Please visit the Spring RFA website and see below for details.

CFAC encourages submissions of requests of around $30,000 or less. Additionally, equipment requests that can be purchased and installed quickly (<6 weeks) will be prioritized to ensure funds are spent by the end of the fiscal year when necessary.

CFAC requests that core directors who intend to submit an NIH S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant or High End Instrumentation Grant later this year and who plan to request matching funds from CFAC should submit a request for matching funds during this RFA cycle.

Applications are due: February 20, 2026 at 11:59 pm

Important Information

Decisions regarding matching fund requests for the NIH S10 program will be made ahead of the internal submission deadline through the Office of Research Development. All other funding decisions will be made and announced mid-March

ORT and the OVCR Research Core Development team will identify any equipment requests that may be a good fit for requesting funding through the OVCR Equipment fund. This is identified by owning School of the core and breadth and depth of user base of the core across multiple fields, Schools, and Departments. If your application is selected, further information about applying through the OVCR portal will be provided.

If a laboratory currently obtaining services from an entity outside of a UNC Chapel Hill core facility is interested in bringing their business to an appropriate core on campus but would like to apply for funding to ensure the core facility’s protocols, equipment, and data quality meet or exceed their current vendor, the PI and the core facility can co-develop a method development application. This application can request up to 50% of the total cost of the quote from the core facility to validate the method for an appropriate number of the lab’s samples to verify data quality. For questions about eligibility please reach out to Kara Clissold at kara_clissold@med.unc.edu. Please see the attached memo for additional information. We request all core facilities to distribute the attached memo to their mailing list to reach faculty it may be applicable to.

If you request funding for equipment, please ask the vendor to indicate the lead time to delivery on the quote.

Word templates to aid in the completion of the application are provided and are on our website, but submissions must be entered through the online forms. If you are unsure which form to utilize or have questions about the submission process, please reach out to Kara Clissold at kara_clissold@med.unc.edu.

Website link: https://www.med.unc.edu/corefacilities/spring-rfa/

Seminar Alert: NextGen Sequencing with the High-Throughput Sequencing Facility
2026-03-25 10:00 - 11:30 | GMB 1007

Launch of Carolina Microscopy
2026-04-20 14:00 - 15:30 | Roper Hall 1101
We are excited to announce the launch of Carolina Microscopy ! This single core unifies the four departmental microscopy cores — the Biology Microscopy Core (College of Arts & Sciences), the Hooker Imaging Core (Cell Biology & Physiology), Microscopy Services Laboratory Core (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine), and Neuroscience Microscopy Core (Neuroscience Center) — under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR).

This change comes after careful consideration and input from all stakeholders, reflecting a shared institutional commitment to reducing internal competition, creating operational efficiencies, and ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of our shared research infrastructure.
Each site will continue operating in its current location with existing staff and equipment, but all will move under a single administrative and financial structure. Day-to-day operations will remain under the direction of the current core directors, with Michelle Itano assuming a broader administrative role in coordination with the OVCR’s core management team. A new, unified iLab core page goes live in April and a temporary unified webpage is available while the full website is being built.

All costs, rates, and subsidy structures will be implemented by the OVCR on April 13, 2026, in compliance with institutional rate-setting policies. Please note that iLab integrates member subsidies independently from the core. For questions regarding membership, please reach out
directly to your Center Director.

Please join us for our opening launch celebration in the Roper Hall Auditorium on April 20, 2026 at 2pm. Hear about the vision for the new unified core and get inspired by some of our amazing researchers and industry and academic partners who collaborate with the core.
What does this mean for current users? By and large it will be very similar but with a different iLab page beginning in April (details to come for current users), updated rates (approved by OSP) and a unified website (under construction). The four cores already operate very similarly, so while we are taking the opportunity to optimize workflows and align core policies where appropriate, changes to users are expected to be small.
We deeply appreciate the support and partnership of the UNC research community and each department and school in this process.

Warm regards,

Meghan Kraft (Director of Research Core Facilities, OVCR)
Nat Prunet (Director of the Bio Microscopy Core)
Wendy Salmon (Director of the HIC)
Pablo Ariel (Director of the MSL)
Michelle Itano (Director of the NMC)

Staff Recognition Award Nominations Due
2026-04-30 08:00 - 17:00
The Office of Research Technologies is excited to announce the Core Facility Staff Recognition Program is open for nominations. These awards recognize the value and importance of the staff in our biomedical research core facilities. This program will offer up to three awards acknowledging the efforts and contributions of SHRA and EHRA non-faculty staff members in the biomedical research cores at UNC. One award may be given in each of three categories:

Technical Achievement
Customer Service
Performance Excellence

Specific criteria and examples for each of these awards can be found on the website.

Anyone can nominate a staff member for the award (no self-nominations, though) so please forward the award announcement to other core facility stakeholders, customers or other lab members who may wish to nominate a staff member!
Nominees and nominators can be from any of the Schools at UNC. Nominations are open through April 30, 2026, with winners announced in late May. If you have any questions after reading the criteria on our website please contact the Office of Research Technologies at corefacilities@med.unc.edu
Each winner will receive $1,000 (pre-tax) and a feature on the Office of Research Technologies website.

Website link: https://www.med.unc.edu/corefacilities/core-facilities-staff-recognition-program

We look forward to your nominations!

DNAStar Lasergene Workshop
2026-05-01 09:30 - 11:30 | Mary Ellen Jones 3108
The Bioinformatics & Analytics Research Collaborative (BARC) in association with SOM Office of Research is planning to host a workshop on DNASTAR’s Lasergene, a bioinformatics tool that is used for comprehensive sequence analysis for molecular biology research, genomics, and protein analysis.
Date: Friday, May 1st, 2026 (9:30 AM – 11:30 AM)
Location: Mary Ellen Jones Building (room 3108)
Interest Sign-up Link:
DNASTAR Lasergene Workshop Interest Form
From cloning and primer design to NGS, long-read, and protein analysis, DNASTAR empowers researchers to move from data to discovery with confidence.
Information:
The workshop is free and open only to UNC-affiliated researchers.

It will be lecture-style and involve some of the following topics in molecular biology:

-Data entry into Lasergene
– Local Blast database creation
-Plasmid Map Creation with auto-annotation
-Cloning workflows (Golden Gate, Gibson, PCR-Directed restriction digest
-Viral and Bacterial Genome Alignments
-Nucleotide, protein, and Sanger alignments
-Phylogenetics (RAxML, BIONJ, and IQ-TREE)

Please fill out the survey to register at the link above to register for the workshop. I will send out an email confirming your attendance on Monday April 27th, 2026.
You can also reach out if you have any questions or have any issues with the registration: sophia_kennedy@med.unc.edu
Check out UNC’s supported bioinformatics software here: https://www.med.unc.edu/barc/software/

Metabolomics and Proteomics Core: Waters Xevo CDMS for Academic and Biopharma Researchers
2026-05-01 12:30 - 14:30 | Mary Ellen Jones 3116
Waters will be hosting a Lunch & Learn Seminar with the Metabolomics and Proteomics Core at UNC on Friday, May 1st.

This seminar will highlight how Charge Detection Mass Spectrometry (CDMS) enables direct, single-particle measurement of large megadalton-scale biomolecules that are beyond the reach of conventional mass spectrometry. Join Waters Principal Scientist Erin Panczyk for a live demonstration and discussion on how CDMS is advancing the characterization of complex biomolecules and improving data quality, reproducibility, and discovery. See the attached flyer for more details.

When: Friday, May 1, 2026 – 12:30 – 2:30 PM.
Where: UNC Chapel Hill – Mary Ellen Jones Building, Room 3116
To register: https://cvent.me/4oZQg9.

Pac-Bio Seminar Co-Hosted by the UNC and Duke Genomic Cores
2026-05-15 12:00 - 15:30 | Bondurant 2030
UNC Chapel Hill and Duke have the PacBio tools to help your research succeed! Come learn what instrumentation is available and how to access it!

UNC Mass Spectrometry Seminar:
2026-06-08 12:00 - 13:00 | 2004 Marsico Hall, 125 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill

Core Travel Award Applications Due
2026-07-31 08:00 - 17:00
Travel Award Details
Applications are open through July 31, 2026, with funding decisions expected within the first week of February. These grants are available to core directors and staff for conference travel occurring through January 2027.

We strongly encourage those interested in attending the Mid-Atlantic Directors and Staff of Scientific Cores (MAD SSCi) annual meeting on August 26-28, 2026. to apply. This conference offers high-value opportunities for our community, including:

Pre-Meeting Workshops: Advanced Business Skills and Business Skills for Bioinformatics Scores

Core Management & Technology Sessions: Daily agendas tailored to both leadership and technical specialties, with sessions for bioinformatics cores and animal model cores in addition to traditional core technologies

More Information and Application Instructions

Duke-UNC Single Cell Initiative Symposium
2026-08-25 08:15 - 17:00 | Trent Semans Center for Health Education, Duke University
