{"id":5938,"date":"2025-04-17T15:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/?p=5938"},"modified":"2025-04-18T11:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T15:40:20","slug":"unc-chapel-hill-well-represented-at-abrf-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/unc-chapel-hill-well-represented-at-abrf-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"UNC Chapel Hill Well-Represented at ABRF 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hosted in Las Vegas, NV from March 23 – March 26, 2025, the Association for Biomedical Resource Facilities (ABRF) annual meeting brought together more than 900 core directors, staff, administrators, scientists, and vendor partners from around the United States (and beyond!) to provide a critical opportunity for education, connection, and celebration among the core community. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"UNC-CH
Front row from L: Meghan Kraft, Zoe Senn, Gabriela de la Cruz, Michelle Itano, and Charlene Santos. Back row from L: Ben Wright, Chris Gregory, Erin Wallace, Kara Clissold, Patricia Basta, Angela Creighton, Stew Little, and Holly Dressman. Not pictured: Nat Prunet and Casey Lunkley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) was well represented at this meeting, with attendance from 15 members of the core ecosystem as both attendees and invited speakers. Christopher Gregory, PhD (Director, UNC SOM Office of Research Technologies), presented a session on quality audit preparedness and training during the pre-meeting <\/span>Business Skills workshop<\/span><\/b>. These workshops offer critical foundational skills on the compliance aspects of core management across universities, including budgeting, rates, equipment, and metrics. \u00a0He also led a session on <\/span>Rigor, Reproducibility, and Transparency Practices for Shared Resources<\/span><\/b> which presented challenges and successes for improving rigorous and reproducible research conducted within core facilities across diverse scientific fields. Alongside Chris in that session was Michelle Itano, PhD, Director of the UNC Neuroscience Microscopy Core.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Michelle Itano (UNC Chapel Hill Neuroscience Microscopy Core) and Karolien Denef (Colorado State University) are all smiles for their panel session “Learning to Coach: A Toolkit to Empower Individual and Professional Growth” ABRF 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She presented the challenges and solutions for complex workflows in her microscopy core. Michelle also spoke in a session titled <\/span>Learning to Coach: A Toolkit to Empower Individual and Professional Growth<\/span><\/b>, addressing the need for professional development in management and mentorship for core directors and senior core staff, who may benefit from increased access to resources supporting the success of future career scientists and trainees. Ben Wright, Director of Research Core Development in the UNC Office of Sponsored Programs, was a speaker in the session <\/span>Shared Research Resources and Central Offices: A Winning Hand<\/span><\/b> which shared and highlighted the important partnerships core facilities must maintain with other administrative units on campus. Ben specifically highlighted the steps taken here at UNC Chapel Hill to break down barriers and increase transparency between these units. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Four UNC-CH members presented Lightning Talks during daily lunch breaks, contributing important knowledge on scientific and administrative workflows and programs. Gabriela de la Cruz (Facility Director, Pathology Services Core) presented <\/span>From Method Development to Discovery: Innovating Spatial Transcriptomics with Xenium<\/span><\/b>. \u00a0Her talk focused on the workflow and challenges of incorporating and<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gaby
Gabriela de la Cruz (Pathology Services Core) presents her Lighting Talk during ABRF 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

optimizing new technology into a core facility. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Zoe
Zoe Senn (UNC NeuroTools Viral Vector Core) presents her Lightning Talk “Utilizing Salesforce to Optimize Ordering and Billing Workflows for Cores with External Customer Bases” during ABRF 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zoe Senn (Business Officer, NeuroTools Viral Vector Core) discussed a creative solution to problems identified at the interface of the customer ordering process and the core billing process in <\/span>Utilizing Salesforce to Optimize Ordering and Billing Workflows for Cores with External Customer Bases<\/span><\/b>. Kara Clissold (Associate Director, UNC SOM Office of Research Technologies (ORT)) presented on a unique pilot project funding program and its outcomes managed by ORT and the Core Facility Advocacy Committee (CFAC) in Pilot Project Funding: Return on Investment and Impact of a \u201cCore Voucher\u201d Program<\/b><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kara
Kara Clissold (Office of Research Technologies) presents “Pilot Project Funding: Return on Investment and Impact of a \u201cCore Voucher\u201d Program” during the Lighting Talk sessions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, Patricia Basta, PhD (Director, UNC BioSpecimen Processing Facility) presented a protocol comparison for RNA extraction in <\/span>Method for Comparison for RNA Extraction to be Used for Potential Differential Expression Analysis of Salamanders Undergoing Winter Dormancy<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"A
Patricia Basta (UNC BioSpecimen Processing Facility) was presented with an ABRF Waters Award for her presentation “Method for Comparison for RNA Extraction to be Used for Potential Differential Expression Analysis of Salamanders Undergoing Winter Dormancy” during ABRF 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notably, Patricia also was awarded one of four ABRF Waters Awards by the ABRF Education Committee. The Waters Award, sponsored by the Waters Corporation, recognizes lightning talks that present original research enabled by advanced life sciences technologies, methods, and software tools. Congratulations, Patricia!<\/p>\n

\"A
UNC Chapel Hill took to the Strip to explore Las Vegas, NV before ABRF 2025 began. From left, Ben Wright, Patricia Basta, Kara Clissold, Holly Dressman, and Gabriela de la Cruz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UNC-CH contingent also enjoyed the opportunity to connectfurther during a group dinner and exploration of Las Vegas. Join us in Pittsburg, PA March 28-31, 2026, for the next ABRF annual meeting or consider attending the upcoming local ABRF chapter meeting for the Mid-Atlantic Directors and Staff of Scientific Cores (MAD SSci) in Richmond, VA on September 15-17!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hosted in Las Vegas, NV from March 23 – March 26, 2025, the Association for Biomedical Resource Facilities (ABRF) annual meeting brought together more than 900 core directors, staff, administrators, scientists, and vendor partners from around the United States (and beyond!) to provide a critical opportunity for education, connection, and celebration among the core community. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55643,"featured_media":5948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/943\/2025\/04\/IMG_5519-scaled.jpeg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/943\/2025\/04\/IMG_5519-300x225.jpeg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/943\/2025\/04\/IMG_5519-768x576.jpeg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/943\/2025\/04\/IMG_5519-1024x768.jpeg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/943\/2025\/04\/IMG_5519-150x150.jpeg","featured_image_alt":"UNC-CH attendees stand in front of the ABRF sign during the ABRF 2024 conference","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5938"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5973,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5938\/revisions\/5973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/corefacilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}