These five steps will assure the trouble-free processing of your projects:
- Make sure that you have a PPMS account.
PPMS is the new invoicing system at UC Davis. As of July 1, 2019 we require a PPMS account for each user before receiving samples. The ‘group’ in PPMS is named after the PI, with other ‘users’ linked to the PI’s account – in general it will be easier if the PI initiates the first PPMS account request.
Use this page to setup a PPMS account. You (or ideally, the PI) will input the financial accounting contact information. Once submitted, the Genome Center Business Office will approve your account within a few days. Step-by-step instructions for account creation can be found in this FAQ. Please read the instructions for setting up a new account carefully, particularly the requirements for the appropriate billing information.
Only customers can enter financial/billing account data into PPMS. The correct financial account must be entered before any submission can be made.
- Please check the sample requirements page and plan your project accordingly: http://dnatech.genomecenter.ucdavis.edu/sample-requirements/
- Find the sample submission and sample shipping instructions on this page and fill out the submission the appropriate submission form: http://dnatech.genomecenter.ucdavis.edu/sample-submission-scheduling/
- Make sure the correct financial account is entered in PPMS. The Core staff will place the order in PPMS upon arrival of the samples – you will be notified by email.
- Ship or drop-off your samples in the lab, together with a printed copy of the submission form.
We encourage you to consult our extensive FAQs in case of questions. We offer free consultations; see the consultation page. For training and use of our shared instruments, please see this page. Our general contact address is dnatech@ucdavis.edu. Illumina has posted NGS tutorials in this “Beginner’s Guide to NGS”.
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The Genome Center Cores provide services for all University of California labs, other academic labs and National Laboratories, as well as for industry customers. It is important to understand how the Core facility works in order to derive full benefit from us. The information below summarizes the procedures – please read carefully and if you have any questions or concerns, contact us.
Financial accounts, POs, invoices
- Correct financial account information in PPMS is required for submitting orders:
– UC Davis Users: The financial account information is required in form of Chart of Account (COA) string or the Project Portfolio Management (POET) string.
– Users from other UC campuses will require complete chart strings, as shown here. Please inquire with your financial administrator for the current account string version for UC intercampus transactions.
– Outside Users (non UC system), both non-profit and for-profit organizations wanting to pay by credit card, please leave the financial account information field blank. You will receive an invoice via email with instructions once your order has been processed. You can also set up a purchase order and enter the number in you PPMS account (see PO info and a template here). If paying by credit card, once our financial office has processed the order you will receive an email directing you to a secure site for payment. You’ll have 30 days to pay using your credit card through this secure site. Wire transfers are an option for international and domestic customers. Wire transfer instructions will be sent with your invoice.
We are registered with the SAM.GOV database and have a Unique Entity ID. Please find the ID information, Tax ID, and DUNS number here, and the UCD W9 here. All UC Davis institutional IDs and codes are available here: https://research.ucdavis.edu/about-us/institutional-information/ - Use this template for an NDA.
- If your company requires a business agreement, please find template language here: Business Agreement Template.
This FAQ explains the invoicing procedures. For any questions regarding billing, please contact our administrators Rebekah Parra and Katie Roberts at gccoreadmin@ucdavis.edu. The Genome Center accepts money transfers, credit card and government purchase card payments etc. Also see this administration page.
Charges are applied for all samples regardless of the outcome of the experiment. The only exception is when a clear failure of instrumentation or sample handling on our part has taken place.
Sample Submission
All sample drop-offs must be accompanied by the appropriate submission form, and this form should also be emailed to dnatech@ucdavis.edu. For submission information, including submission forms and shipping details, please visit the SAMPLE SUBMISSION & SCHEDULING PAGE.
Data Storage and Distribution
The Core uses SLIMS (“Solexa LIMS”) for Illumina sequence data delivery. Data on this web server is stored for one month free of charge. Thereafter no charges are applied, but the data may be deleted at any time, and you will not have any warning when this is about to occur. It is recommended you immediately download all your data and verify its integrity, in case the files get corrupted in compression or during transfer.
Scheduling
Sample submission to the Core ebbs and flows. It is difficult to predict more than a couple of weeks in advance what the turnaround time on a given project will be. In contrast, once samples are in the sequencing queue we can typically give a pretty good estimate of when the first data will be available. Please consult the HiSeq Calendar & Queue page for NovaSeq and Aviti projects. We do recommend having early discussions on scheduling because we don’t maintain a stock of some of the materials we use, and may need to place a special order for your project.
Equipment & Training
An important part of the Core’s mission is to provide access to equipment and techniques that will advance your research. Equipment available through the Core is listed in the services menu, and its use is detailed on the Training & Use of Equipment page. For information about workshops and other technical training opportunities, subscribe to our bulletin by emailing lfroenicke@ucdavis.edu. Workshop dates are always posted on the Core home page as well.
News Bulletins/Email List
The DNA Technologies Core maintains email lists to notify our clients of facility updates, technical updates, seminars, and workshops. Please see this link to subscribe or unsubscribe from the email lists.
Research Support
The Core is happy to provide written materials to augment your research efforts. This can include support letters to granting institutions listing available facility resources, details on technical support Core personnel can provide, and estimated budget figures for particular research projects. We can also contribute Materials and Methods information for manuscripts that include experiments done in the Core. Naturally, we always appreciate acknowledgment in such publications.
Seed Grants
The Genome Center invites proposals for pilot projects that merit support by the Genome Center. These seed grants award up to $2000 to spend at any of the Cores, and it is possible to apply for grants at multiple Cores. The Genome Center seed grants are available year-round. They are designed to either introduce UC Davis labs to high-throughput sequencing or genotyping methods, or to help establish new methods. A seed grant application should be about one page long and include an outline of the project, the planned data analysis, a sentence on how the project would fit in with the goals of the Genome Center seed grants, a listing of the specific services to be provided by the DNA Tech Core, as well as a budget (including an account number in case the costs exceed the grant amount). For more information, please see Pilot Grant Program.
Projects
In addition to the typical ‘per sample’ fee based system, the Core offers a project based recharge system. The project based model is more of an R & D approach in which the researcher pays for access to Core technology and expertise in an attempt to achieve a particular research goal. Fees are deposited in agreed-upon lump sums and the Core undertakes the project with no guarantees of success (but with high scientific impact if the goals are realized).
Acknowledgements
Please support us by acknowledging our services in your publications as described here. Most of the technologies used in the Core are scientifically complex and expensive. It is expected that detailed conversations will take place as a matter of course between users and facility personnel at the outset and throughout projects. This does not warrant authorship but we love to see ourselves listed gratefully in the acknowledgements section when your data is published. If extra effort is taken by us along the way, particularly in research where substantial intellectual and technical input is provided, we feel it is appropriate for the researcher to provide authorship to involved facility personnel. This is clearly a gray area in any scientific setting, and because fees are involved it’s even grayer. Just remember that the cheerful professionals that help you out also have resumes, come up for performance reviews, and citations are important additions to their CV. We will initiate discussions on this early in a project if we feel it’s relevant. So far everyone has been more than accommodating, so thank you all for that!
Prices – Recharge Rate Scales
The Genome Center Cores provide services at three recharge rate scales. The University of California rate scale (UC rates) applies to all projects paid through UC-system accounts. Non-profit/academic rates apply to all other non-profit research, including government projects. Industry rates apply to all projects paid from for-profit businesses or institutions. Please see the prices pages for details.
Disclaimer
Reagents, services, and data provided through the Genome Center DNA Technologies and Expression Analysis Core are intended for research use only. They are not intended for use in diagnostic or other medical procedures.
