-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 1
FAQ
- Our primary mission is to help build LONG-TERM, extramurally-funded research programs for USF Genomics and to support the USF community by facilitating cutting-edge omics research.
-
We are a small, interdisciplinary team of PhD-level biologists, bench scientists, bioinformaticians, programmers, statisticians, and scientific-writing experts here to help you design experiments, generate preliminary data, and collaborate with you to facilitate your omics research and strengthen the USF Genomics Program.
-
We are also employed nearly full-time as researchers on various extramurally-funded projects. We continue to build our careers through these as well as collaborative projects initiated through the Hub.
Why do I have to provide a funding-mechanism in my inquiry even though up to 4 hours of consultation are free per PI?
- coming soon
- coming soon
-
We are all scientists, and in a perfect world, the Spirit of Discovery would be the sole reason for our existence. However! The Spirit of Discovery must ultimately be sustained by grant-money, and as such, our primary purpose is to facilitate high-caliber omics research to build a nationally-competitive Program for securing this funding.
-
Our Core was established with ___ as an investment in the future and growth of USF Genomics. Thanks to this support, we're currently able to provide _____ services (RNAseq training) for free to our USF community, as well as initial hours of consultation on omics-related projects per PI. Through these initiatives just over the past year, we've already seen promising Community engagement (from PI's, staff, and trainees), productive interdisciplinary collaborations, and a number of successful extramurally-funded proposals.
-
As an academic institutional Core, The USF Genomics Facility and Omics Hub consulting services are not actually allowed to make profit. And don't worry, we don't! We do, however, need to recoup a percentage of operating-costs to continue to justify our existence and ensure continued availability of these resources.
- Rule of thumb: you should expect to budget around the same amount for data-analysis as you do for sequencing. More accurate estimates will be provided upon consultation and our suggested data-analysis plan--including the people and time required.
That sounds like a lot of money! How much work could it really be for you to push some buttons and give me an answer?
-
It is a common misconception among laboratory scientists that because everybody has a computer, data-scientists already have pre-defined methods/programs into which any data can be plugged, and sensible biological conclusions simply fall out. While it is sometimes possible to push buttons without knowing what you are doing to generate an "answer"--we don't recommend this approach, and most of the time it doesn't work that way!
-
Quality computational data-analyses are produced no more magically than wet-lab experimental results. If you are a lab-scientist, consider your own experience at the bench and the importance of thoughtful, reasoned experimental design (among other essential components, such as training and technical skill). So it is with computational analyses--there is no substitute for understanding your scientific question and designing the most appropriate experiment, using the most appropriate tools and methodologies (or creating new tools and methodologies when the need arises!), to answer your questions.
-
There are some cases where one-size-fits-all data-analysis may be suitable for your purposes, and there are many fine bioinformatic for-profit, fee-for-service companies that can provide those analyses for you. Our focus as an academic institution is to educate you, provide context for our methods, and if needed, help you interpret your data biologically. The breadth of our experience as computational scientists, bench-scientists, and above all biologists makes us effective collaborators, and we are invested in the success of our USF Genomics Research Community.