General

1. The Broad CIRM Center (BCC) is a secure building. The lab is accessible Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. After-hours and weekend access is contingent upon the user’s experience and training and is subject to BCC administrative approval. Non-BCC staff should print and fill out the Broad CIRM Center (BCC) building access form and return it via intercampus mail to “Ryan Maier, Facilities and Events Coordinator, Broad CIRM Center (BCC) 200B, MC 9080.” Upon receipt, activation will take 24 to 48 hours. (Additional security forms may be required if you also require the USCard.)
2. Faculty and their staff should contact the core director for an initial consultation. A one-hour consultation is provided free of charge to new customers and laboratories. Consultation in excess of one hour is billed at the hourly rate.
3. Users should submit completed biosafety forms to the core director. Only approved projects will be granted access to the instrumentation.
4. Full-service and self-service appointments are available. Full-service appointments are subject to core personnel availability and charged for instrument time in addition to personnel time. Self-service appointments are available to trained users and charged for instrument time only. It is mandatory for all users to be trained by core personnel prior to using any instrumentation. Users may not train co-workers. Training is a recharge service scheduled between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., subject to core staffing availability. Training to operate instrumentation is an hourly charge per person. Training to operate the sorters is a two-day, super user course provided for a flat fee per person.
5. Instrument reservations and items are ordered using CORES (Core Ordering and Reporting Enterprise System).
6. Instrument time will be available on a first come, first serve basis. Secure your appointment as early as possible, especially if assistance from core personnel is required. Reservations with Core Assistance may be created with as little as one day’s notice, or may be scheduled a maximum of 21 days in advance. Users needing emergency or other short-notice appointments should telephone the core facility at 323-442-7942 to request service.
7. Please be courteous to the lab personnel. Arrive for appointments in a timely fashion to ensure you have adequate time to complete your experiment. If you are running more than 15 minutes late for any appointment, notify the core.
8. Cancellation of any appointment should be done at least 24 hours prior to the appointment to avoid cancellation fees. Cancellations within 24 hours of appointment will incur a charge for 50 percent of reserved time. Failure to contact the core director or failure to appear will result in a 100 percent charge for lost time.
9. The core facility is a shared resource. Help maintain orderliness by removing or disposing of gloves, samples, tube racks or other labware that does not belong to the facility.
10. Your input is appreciated. Please contact the director with any comments, problems, complaints or suggestions that you have regarding the facility.

Analysis

1. Please report any instrument problems or issues to the manager immediately; email is the best mode of communication. Provide as much information as possible, including your phone number for call back. You may be given instructions to troubleshoot the issue.
2. Users are expected to clean the Sample Probe after every experiment and to service the fluid tanks.
3. Users are expected to perform Quality Control (QC) prior to the run and to appropriately clean and shut down the instrument when finished, especially on weekends or after hours.
4. Users are expected to archive their experimental data and to keep their browsers or drive space maintained to a minimal storage capacity.

Cell Sorting

1. Only core personnel or other formally trained personnel (super users) will conduct sorting.
2. Please report any instrument problems and issues to the manager immediately; email is the best mode of communication. Provide as much information as possible, including your phone number for call back. You may be given instructions to troubleshoot the issue.
3. Users are expected to clean the Sample path and to service the Sheath and Waste tanks as necessary.
4. Users are expected to perform Quality Control (QC) prior to the run and to appropriately clean and shut down the instrument when finished.
5. Users are expected to archive their experimental data and to keep their browsers or drive space maintained to a minimal storage capacity.
6. Users are expected to monitor the cell sorter’s progress while waiting for it to complete work. Sorters left unattended will be charged additionally for core personnel’s intervention.
7. Please contact the director at least 24 to 48 hours in advance to establish the appointment and to discuss details and expectations of the experiment.
8. Please be prompt for the appointment and notify the manager as early as possible if you will be late. Excessive tardiness may result in cancellation of the sort to prevent any delay to subsequent clients.
9. To cancel a sorting appointment, please notify the director with more than 24 hours advance notice. Cancelling within 24 hours of a reservation results in a 50 percent cancellation charge. Failure to cancel an appointment in which a user does not appear will result in a fine equal to the reservation charge.
10. To be better prepared for future experiments, users are encouraged to communicate with the manager following any sorting experiment to discuss any problems or issues, including contamination, excessive or premature cell death, or erratic cell behavior.

Data Management

1. The core will not be held responsible for lost data or data archiving.
2. User-controlled USB drives or other mobile drives are not permitted.
3. Access to a temporary share drive (Y:/) is provided. However, mapping of local computers to this drive is the responsibility of the end user. Users are to export all data and files to this drive.
4. The hard drives on the cytometers will be cleared bi-annually (twice a year).
5. The analysis workstations are not storage locations for data, batch analyses, PowerPoints or other personal files. Any files found in unapproved locations on the drives will be immediately erased.
6. Users will be given two weeks notice prior to purge dates.
7. All experiment names will use the following convention to avoid naming duplications when archiving experiments. The naming strategy for all users includes an instrument designation, two- or three-letter user code, and six-digit code to represent the date in month/ day/ year format (eg. C-LWB030612). If the minimum naming is not sufficient to sort your experiments, use additional suffix coding to sort your experiments, such as LWB030612_cellcycle