Skip to main content

IMSERC Onboarding

Project Definition

Before beginning a project or generating samples, CPC strongly suggests that a consultation be scheduled to identify:

  1. Experimental Goals
  2. Sample Collection Details
  3. Target Matrices and Analyte Concentration
  4. Number of Samples and Timeline
In our experience if this meeting is not held prior to begining a project, the samples provided are not amenable to MS analysis or sampling is insufficient to answer the question posed.

Seeking Funding

CPC staff can assist with grant proposal preparation to improve the chances of funding success. Typically data is collected on a fee-for-service basis and assistance with the grant proposal is provided free of charge when a CPC staff member will have dedicated effort on the project, if funded.

Sample Analysis

In order to complete assay development and sample analysis, the requester must provide:

  1. >= 10 mg of pure reference material, or a 1.0 mg/mL neat solution per compound.
  2. >= 10 mg of pure analog reference material, or a 1 mg/mL neat solution per compound for use as an internal standard. For GLP-like studies, stable isotope labeled analytes are strongly prefered. In cases where stable isotope labeled analyte cannot be obtained, CPC staff can suggest suitable alternative internal standards.
  3. >= 6 mL/ blank biological matrix or 5g tissue to be used for preparation of the calibration curve.
  4. >= 500 µL (plasma/blood/urine) and/or 60 mg (tissue) per sample to be analyzed. If smaller amounts of sample are provided, CPC staff will make their best effort to analyze in duplicate while reserving sufficient sample to rerun the sample preparation, if needed. This may result in an increased LLOQ or lower number of technical replicates.
In cases where samples are collected in another location, samples should be stored at -80C prior to shipment to CPC. Written approval from a CPC staff member is required prior to shipment. Unexpected shipments will be returned to the sender unopened.

Interpreting and Publishing Results

Data quality is independently confirmed by a second CPC staff member before release to the customer. At this time, the submitter may request additional modeling including muticompartmental kinetics modeling or generation of figure for publication. These activities are provided on a fee-for-service basis when no CPC member has effort applied to the project. In cases where this work leads to publication, CPC should be appropriately acknowledged and the appropriate staff member should be an author on the publication. Manuscript review prior to publication is provided at no cost.

Acknowledgements

Publications utilizing data collected in CPC should have the following language or similar statement in the acknowledgement section:

In addition, please notify a CPC staff member after publication to allow all publications to be included in required annual reports to the NIH and NU administration.