Shared Resources—or Cores—are the Cancer Center’s scientific force multipliers, putting specialized expertise, cutting-edge technology, and practical know-how within reach of every investigator. They can help researchers design stronger experiments, avoid costly missteps, move projects forward faster, and tackle work that might otherwise be out of reach.
Below, Ben Braun, MD, PhD, associate director for Shared Resources, talks about the power and capabilities of shared resources and how they strengthen research.
Q: What exactly are Shared Resources (Cores), and why does the Cancer Center invest in them?
There are so many different types of core facilities that they can be hard to define, but I'm pretty happy with the definition on Wikipedia: “a centralized shared research resource that provides scientific community with access to unique and highly specialized instruments, technologies, services, and experts.”
Cores typically have a multifaceted mission: to provide equipment and expertise, to advance research methods, and to educate their research community. The Cancer Center invests in them to enhance the research environment for all its members, and to use economies of scale to make key services more efficient.
Q: Is there anything about the Cancer Center’s cores that distinguish our center from others?
Every cancer center develops cores to meet the specific needs of their research community. Several HDFCCC cores stand out to me as being relatively unique. The Preclinical Therapeutics Core, the Small Molecule Discovery Center, and the Imaging cores provide services that are not often available in other centers. We are also developing The CRISPR Bridge to assists labs with genome editing and related technologies. In addition, the cores that any center develops will be in the context of what other resources exist at their institution. For example, our cancer center does not have an internal facility for next-generation sequencing because other outstanding facilities already exist on campus.
Q: Why should members use a Core instead of doing the work in their own lab?
Core staff are highly experienced and thus have extensive skill sets relevant to their work. So one of the primary reasons to use a core is access to that expertise, which improves the quality and efficiency of the work. A related question is when to use equipment in a core versus purchasing an instrument for your own lab. It is almost always a better decision to use equipment in the core when it’s available. One reason is that core personnel typically maintain the equipment at a higher level than most independent labs will do.
Furthermore, it is much more economical. When you pay the recharge fee, you are only paying for the portion of the service contract that you need. When a lab buys its own equipment, they are often surprised to find that the service contract requires an annual expense of about 10-15% of the purchase cost. That can be a lot of money, especially when you are not using the machine constantly. Finally, when recharges include effort for core personnel, it can seem quite expensive when you just see the hourly rate. However, you need to compare this against the hourly rate that you are de facto paying your own laboratory employees. When you take that in consideration and combine it with the expertise of the core personnel, and the 25-30% rebate that HDFCCC can typically provide, it is often a better value than you might assume.
Q: When should members engage a Core during a research project?
Any time! Most cores offer a lot of consultation without charge, so discussing a potential project is always welcome. In general, it is best to have conversations about experimental design before the bench work starts. But the cores are happy to be engaged whenever it makes sense to the investigators.
Q: How can Shared Resources strengthen a grant applications and research proposals?
Core personnel can often help draft language for a grant proposal that will make it more rigorous. In addition, including core staff as key personnel in your application can demonstrate that you have assembled an expert team for the project.
Q: How do Shared Resources improve the quality, rigor, and reproducibility of research?
The cores have a lot of experience within their domains. They will know the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches they are using and be able to suggest appropriate controls. And when equipment is involved, it will be sure to be properly calibrated and maintained, which improves the quality of raw data.
Q: What do successful investigators do to get the most value from Shared Resources?
One key is to know what cores exist and which the services they provide, so you don't try to reinvent the wheel when there is an expert at hand who could help get results faster.
For example, I wouldn't think that anybody would need to learn how to perform immunohistochemistry on their own anymore since there is a core that does biomarker histology work (LCA-Genome). Same with computational biology and biostatistics. Sure, you can try to design your own algorithms and pipelines, but it will probably go better if you consult somebody who has already worked out a lot of the kinks and probably knows what pitfalls to avoid. Everybody learns how to do a t-test at some point, but not everybody understands that it’s inappropriate for percentage data that is bounded between 0 and 100. A professional biostatistician will just do a better job.
Q: How can a Shared Resource help move my research forward faster?
This is a tough question to answer. I would just say that expertise matters. In addition to that, it is a way to temporarily expand your workforce while hiring just the precise amount of labor that you need.
Q: Are Shared Resources only for highly specialized or large-scale projects?
Definitely not. It really depends on the kind of core facility and the kind of project, but in general there is a wide variety of projects scales and scopes supported by shared resources. I think one of the beauties of shared resources is that you just pay for what you need. So small projects can benefit a lot, getting a very high level support for a short amount of time.
Q: What's the biggest mistake investigators make when using Shared Resources?
One thing is to wish that cores could do something differently or better but not giving that feedback to the director or manager. If you feel like a shared resource should have a different kind of instrument, provide a different kind of service, or has unacceptable wait times, the core very much would like to know this. Another issue can be thinking that brief use of a core instrument doesn't require signing up. We need to be able to track who's using what instruments in order to allocate costs fairly. And if you don't sign up you are essentially freeloading a bit. So, we need people to sign up even when they need a short run.
Q: How have Shared Resources contributed to scientific discoveries at our Cancer Center?
A great question but hard to answer briefly! One way or another, cores have supported much of the high impact research that has come out of the cancer center.
Q: How can partnering with a Core improve the impact of my publications?
In the best case, a core can make things possible that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do.
Q: What advice would Core directors give to investigators who are using a Shared Resource for the first time?
My advice is, don't be shy. The people in core facilities have chosen a career dedicated to helping other people. They are eager to support you and your research any way they can. So, if there's anything that you have questions about, or if you just want to bat around ideas for an experimental design, don't hesitate to start a conversation. If you ever see an exciting new technology, let us know how it might help you and your colleagues.