2018 ACS Shared Resource Laboratory Survey
In 2018, the Australasian Cytometry Society (ACS) conducted a survey of flow cytometry shared resource laboratories (SRL’s) across Australia and New Zealand in order to provide a roadmap of facilities and expertise available, and provide a tool for benchmarking and collaboration within the SRL community.
The survey result was presented at the ACS 2018 Australasian Cytometry Society 41th Annual Scientific Meeting in Adelaide, Australia. The abstract is shown below.
Overview of Shared Cytometry Laboratories across Australia and New Zealand – –Results from the 2018 ACS Shared Resource Laboratory Survey
The Australasian Cytometry Society Council
Shared Resource Laboratories (SRLs) play a critical role in providing investigator access to technologies, equipment and expertise for advancing high-quality research in a cost-effective manner.
The purpose of the 2018 ACS SRL survey is to gain an overview of the landscape of cytometry resources and expertise across Australia and New Zealand. The survey contained 60 questions that covered a wide range of topics, including facility operation, instrumentation, staff, service, training, data management, user engagement, cost recovery and more.
36 SRLs were invited to participate in this survey resulting in 27 responses. 21 SRLs have dedicated core facility staff ranging from one to nine and 92.6% of SRLs provide staff training. The majority of SRLs provide after-hours sorting and allow user operated cell sorting. Most of the SRLs have comprehensive service agreement for cell sorters and analysers. 96.3% of SRLs provide training to users which consists of theoretical, hands on, data analysis, understanding fluorochromes, panel design and sample preparation. 63% of SRLs run a competency test post training. To achieve full cost recovery by user fees is challenging, only 2 SRLs can achieve 100% cost recovery while the remaining SRLs rely on organisation or grant funding to leverage the cost. Majority of SRLs are fully engaged with their users by running events such as open day, basic and advanced flow cytometry tutorials, data analysis tutorials and wetlab as well as user group meetings and newsletters. Most of these events are open to external researchers. All SRLs manager would recommend ACS to their users. The majority of SRLs use a comprehensive facility management package to manage instrument bookings, invoicing and trainings.
This survey will act as a benchmark and assist SRL managers for proper planning, managing and resourcing of cytometry SRLs, and build a stronger relationship among SRLs within ACS.
Sydney Cytometry is the Advanced Cytometry Facility established through a collaboration of the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney. It is a core research facility for cytometry, cell Sorting and imaging that serves the University of Sydney campus and beyond.
The Facility is underpinned by cutting-edge instrumentation as well as being supported by both academic and technical expertise. A steering committee chaired by a senior University of Sydney academic oversees the operation of this resource partnership.
Sydney Cytometry is committed to the continuing development and transfer of cytometry expertise and techniques, and thus enhancing the role of cytometry as a major modality in biological/biomedical research. We aim to take current research to the next level of discovery and maintain our position on the cutting-edge through ongoing search for funding to support the people and instruments that make this possible.