Research Resources

General Information for New Labs/Research Faculty at UF HSC 

(not college-specific)

 

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Must get approval for facilities use through UF Animal Care Services, and have protocols approved through IACUC online system . ACS: will need to register at myACS account for billing and keeping track of training etc; a fair amount of online and in-person training, plus medical approval, is required for each person working with animals. You’ll need to register for myIACUC to submit and revise protocols.

To find the locations and instructions for nearby autoclaves and information about how to get registered to obtain passwords (for those that require it), contact Idania Alvarez, EHS specialist, at ialvarez@ehs.ufl.edu. EHS works with College of Medicine Research Administration Compliance office (RAC) for autoclave passwords. RAC “partners with the university’s Division of Sponsored Research to provide clinical research administrative services, clinical trial contractual services, training, and compliance oversight and support for UF Health Science Center colleges”

Vivo: You can enter/update yours.

Must be certified annually. Call Scott Campbell at Precision Air Technology at 352-332-4653. Costs approx. $100. UF does not allow use of flames in biosafety cabinets.

 UF policies/OPs Includes information for personal car rental

UF taxi service (free, call for reservation to/from anywhere on campus). Best to call a day ahead but sometimes are available with little notice: 392-7433

Virtual Tour

Opportunities and resources for faculty and students.

Onboarding information such as transferring a grant to UF

check with departmental or college IT persons (you’ll get some online training too). If have a lab computer that multiple people use, each person needs their own password-protected access, and don’t let anyone download any programs or files without your permission. Lab members can use their own laptops if approved through UF, but be sure that everyone keeps their lab data on a server or backed up somehow. Some labs have ethernet connections, but wifi is available too.
Computing help desk for UF:  can answer many questions.
Buying computers at education discount

McKnight cell and tissue analysis core (CTAC) 

Molecular pathology core

Electron microscopy core 

• ICBR cores (Sanger sequencing, next-gen sequencing, protein analysis, gene expression, electron microscopy, antibody production, cytometry, supplies for these, bioinformatics, etc): Will need to set up an account in the iLab system.

Pharmacogenomics genotyping core

MRI/spectroscopy core (AMRIS)

CTSI Cores (Biorepository, iPSC (stem cell), biobehavioral, genotyping (above), imaging, etc.)

  • Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) needs for new lab (back to top)

(Lab safety, biolog safety including bloodborne pathogen program and getting approval for recombinant projects, chemical/radioactive inventory and waste, fume hood maintenance/annual profile, radiation training and license, occupational medicine, etc).  Helps to have a lab manager to keep track of all the monthly/yearly updates, checklists, inventories.  A few of the most practical rules:

o Each lab has a yearly Safety Inspection. (you will be contacted by EHS by email).
o Keep track of the BSL number for each room/lab, as the rules are different.
o Keep a notebook with all of your chemical MSDSs, or a file on the lab computer with MSDS pdfs.
o No open-toed shoes allowed, and no liquids on top shelves.
o Make sure your fume hoods have been checked within past year (phys plant should come in automatically and take care of it every year, dating the certificate).
o In the hallway, not allowed to have gloves on both hands (except for carrying hot or cold things with thermal gloves).
o Make sure there is a first-aid kit in each room that meets EHS standards, and make sure that the antibiotic creams/burn creams are not expired.
o For Bloodborn pathogen-eligible rooms, must have an up to date (annual) BBP Exposure Control Plan posted, as well as updated BBP Standard Operating Procedures.
o Must have biological spill kits and chemical spill kits in every room.
o To be approved to ship biohazardous items, have to do UF shipping training every 2 years
o Fabric lab stools are not allowed – must be nonporous like vinyl.
o Can’t have used disposable gloves on the benches (don’t want them to be re-used).
o Lab coats are sent out to a specific laundry – check with your department for details.
o EHS will provide a bucket for gels containing ethidium bromide, and other containers for waste. Or you can rinse out empty chemical jars and use those. Put a hazardous waste label on
 every waste container listing the chemicals and % of each in the container.
o If you have any biological protocols approved for the lab, EHS will also conduct a biosafety inspection once a year.
o If your lab is Biosafety Level (BSL2) or higher, no food/drink is allowed in the room, and lab coats have to be worn at all times, and lab doors must be shut at all times (more protections for higher levels). Also, biological red-bag waste containers must have a cover.
o In-house vacuum lines – must have a hepa filter in the hose between the liquid and the house vacuum valve.

Service for those with mobility-related disabilities/injuries needing transportation at UF. Need reservations. 352-494-2305

To become eligible to be a grad student mentor in any UF program, you must obtain graduate faculty status
1. largest PhD program at UF HSC is: College of Medicine-based biomedical interdisciplinary PhD graduate program:  (apply for grad faculty status through primary or joint appointment in a College of Medicine basic science department or the Oral Biology Dept. in College of Dentistry).
2. Pharmacy has MS and PhD programs
3. Nursing has MS and PhD programs
4. Public Health and Health Professions MS and PhD programs
5. Veterinary Medicine has MS and PhD programs

There is online training required for all lab members – follow the guidelines. Basic info and in the online Biomedical Waste training, that all lab personnel should do).

• regular trash (nothing that looks like it came from a lab, or has any lab chemicals on it, or is potentially sharp): trash can has a clear liner). Ok for items like wrappers and paper towels used to dry your hands after washing. Custodians typically empty once a day and put in new liners when needed. (note: faculty office trash cans are not necessarily emptied every day). Custodians will also empty the recycle box in each lab/office about once a week (office waste paper that does not contain protected data).
• Non-hazardous lab trash – plastic disposables such as pipets, tips, empty tubes, etc. No recombinant DNA or biomedical waste, as this will not be autoclaved. Waste goes into red-bag lined biohazard cardboard box that the custodians provide (when more are needed, put note in hall asking them to leave several).
• Biological waste: recombinant and/or Biomedical waste – put each expt’s waste into a small red bag, seal with tape, and put into a cardboard biohazard box containing two red bag liners. Will need to autoclave before putting out for pickup. Biohazard waste boxes or containers containing biological waste must be covered (lid).
• Sharps boxes – needles (do not recap) including the attached syringes, razor blades, broken glass, pasteur pipets, disposable scalpels, etc. When 3/4 full (no higher), shut and autoclave and dispose in lab red bag trash box. IF you add anything with a wrapper, then you have to autoclave the box within 30 days. Otherwise, no time limit.

Storage, software available

Any tangible asset expected to last more than a year, costing $5000 or more, has to be ordered through a purchase order (using funds approved for such an expenditure), and ultimately gets a UF bar-coded sticker. Every year inventory is taken to keep track of the rooms in which every piece of equipment resides.
Some new equipment requires EHS approval before use (e.g. refrigerators/freezers), and some after use before disposal (e.g. incubators) to ensure decontaminated. No flammables can be stored in fridge/freezers unless they are explosion-proof. No food/drink in lab fridges/freezers.
To get rid of a bar-coded item: your dept. should have an administrator in charge of this, who puts in a request for “survey out” to send it to surplus (and/or will ask others in department if they want it). It might take a few weeks for UF to come pick it up for surplus.

Check with your dept. and the program about how to do the purchasing.
Fisher stockroom on the HSC dock (ground floor Dental building, also Cancer Genetics Res. Complex). Supplies, dry ice, chemicals, reagents, cell culture media.
Center for Epigenetics: Med Sci M-345, carries Biorad, Sigma, Lifetechnologies, Roche, Agilent, Perkin Elmer, Fermentas.  392-3054.
• Qiagen freezer 6th floor dental (L. Morel lab, D6-6 ) http://morellab.pathology.ufl.edu/qiacabinet/
• New England Biolabs – 2nd floor Basic Science Building, Anatomy, Debra Akin. dakin@ufl.edu.

UF level

HSC level

Medical students do research during first summer (MSRP program); sign up to be a mentor

NIH training for anyone involved in human subjects research who receives federal research funds.

Under the Find menu, e-journals listing is on the right. (and e-books and database choices under the Find menu as well)

Security (computer), fiscal, HIPAA, safety, biohazard, search committees, sexual harrassment, human subjects (IRB), IACUC, etc. Most are available and listed under MyTraining. Some have to be repeated every year or two (your dept. administrators should notify, or you’ll get an email reminder)

  • Ordering carbon dioxide tanks for tissue culture (back to top)

Need to get a FL state exemption. (may have to download the form, fill it in, scan and email to Dinah Greene in Divison of Drugs, Devices and Cosmetics (Dinah.Greene@myfloridalicense.com)).  You will be emailed an approval letter (usually within a week), which needs to be faxed to AirGas (352-338-2814) before you will be allowed to order CO2.

Facilities management contact/request for minor service (custodial, plumbing leak or clog, to schedule floor waxing (1/yr) etc).  273-5905
For air conditioning issue: call 392-1121 Work Control.
For more major work (renovations, installing equip or electrical outlets), talk to your department first – there may be charges.
[problem solving: Bruce Bonham, bbonham@ufl.edu Assistant Director, HSC physical plant.]

On campus (not allowed to put the UF Gator head on posters, use the “UF” logo instead). Check limitations of each place (some can only do 36″ max in one dimension):
Application Support Center: the Hub 
Academic Technology facilities
IFAS Communications
Also can get posters printed off campus, by commercial print shops in town.

To be on an email list where people advertise items they no longer want, often furniture but sometimes lab equipment

Requires training/registration for anyone who will be placing orders. Some other information to see some vendors available and who at UF to contact for more information. Your department may have their own policy for use of P-cards. Ask vendors for quotes to try to find the best prices, especially if starting up a new lab.

Sign up to receive and send requests for sharing/borrowing reagents and equipment (especially helpful if you just need a little bit of something, or had a supply run out but can’t wait for an order to arrive):

For licenses, MTAs, patents, start-ups etc

For business: follow department and College guidelines. May require Travel Authorization Request to be completed ahead of time, especially if getting reimbursed from a grant or paying ahead from a grant. Check with your department’s leave policies for category on PeopleSoft leave entry. If you are getting an honorarium or other compensation (other than study section) file an Outside Activity form ahead of time.

Get on e-mailing list for UF faculty newsletter [Faculty Update Newsletter], by sending a message to Cheryl Gater cgater@AA.UFL.EDU

Division of sponsored programs:  Info about submitting and administering grants, contracts, fellowships etc.
Federal and state info/agreements about/with UF
Budgeting info:  has all kinds of facts about fringe benefits, tuition, and other info needed to create grant/contract/subcontract budget. Also your College’s Research Office should have such info.

Help with Training Grant applications: UF Health Office of Biomedical Research Career Development (contact: Audrey Dickinson, 294-8336, room CG-72G)

Get on mailing list for: UF Funding Opportunities – Weekly Digest (a weekly email that has info about all kinds of national and nonprofit grant opportunities: send email to programdevelopment@research.ufl.edu and ask to be put on the email list-serve.
There is also a searchable database: http://research.ufl.edu/research-program-development/research_program_development_docs/OppManUserGuide.pdf AND http://my.research.ufl.edu/ProgramDevelopment/FundingOpportunities/OpportunitiesManager.aspx?userID=1 (where you log in with Gatorlink info).

 

Tells you what items can be recycled where. Also there are various types of waste receptacles in and around UF buildings. You can recycle many things such as cold packs, bubble wrap, non-alkaline batteries. UF Surplus manages all electronics recycling (352-392-8400).
Empty boxes and styrofoam containers: place in the hallway outside the lab (it is helpful to break down cardboard boxes, but not necessary).
Recycling empty pipet tip boxes: for details about drop sites and requirements, contact
Marie Steinwachs 294-2225.

UF scheduling conferences

Can get Microsoft (and other) software at reduced fee, including for home, with time and number limitations:  Also, older software is available to upload for free at UF Purchasing (e.g. Microsoft products such as Office 2013 Pro Plus, and 2011 for Mac).

392-1111.  Emergency Blue-light poles around campus have phones for emergency use (no need to dial, just hit the button).  Can register bikes in person (Newell Drive and Museum Road).

Ask your department HR administrator how to sign up volunteers, such as undergrad students who want to help with a project in your lab (age 18 or older). For legal reasons, can’t allow anyone to volunteer in your lab until official approval. They will need to do online training. Signing up younger volunteers (minors) is more complicated.
Can sign up to be a mentor for undergrads in the lab at Center for Undergraduate Research
There are also competitive scholarship programs for undergrad volunteers:
1. University Scholars Program.
2. For under-represented minorities interested in graduate school/PhD: McNair Program.
3. Bioscience Scholars program (combined BS/MS for low-income students).