The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) is dedicated to advancing core and research biotechnology laboratories through research, communication, and education. ABRF members include over 2000 scientists representing 340 different core laboratories in 41 countries, including those in industry, government, academic and research institutions.

History

In 1986 a Research Resource Facility Satellite Meeting was held in conjunction with the Sixth International Conference on Methods in Protein Sequence Analysis. The next year protein sequencing and amino acid samples were sent to survey 103 core facilities. By 1989 the ABRF was formally organized and incorporated. Each year an annual meeting was held as a satellite meeting of the Protein Society until 1996 when separate meetings began.

ABRF Research Groups

Research Groups are established to fulfill two of the purposes of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities. First, to provide mechanisms for the self-evaluation and improvement of procedural and operational accuracy, precision and efficiency in resource facilities and research laboratories. Second, to contribute to the education of resource facility and research laboratory staff, users, administrators, and interested members of the scientific community. The results of ABRF Research Group studies have been published in scientific papers. Results from ABRF Research Group studies have seen reuse in other research. * ABRF Next Generation Sequencing Group (ABRF-NGS) * Antibody Technology Research Group (ARG) * Biomedical 'Omics Research Group (BORG) *

DNA Sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

Research Group (DSRG) *

Flow Cytometry Flow cytometry (FC) is a technique used to detect and measure physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells or particles. In this process, a sample containing cells or particles is suspended in a fluid and injected into the flo ...

Research Group (FCRG) *

Genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

Research Group (GVRG) *

Glycoprotein Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycos ...

Research Group (gPRG) *

Light Microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

Research Group (LMRG) * Metabolomics Research Group (MRG) * Metagenomics Research Group (MGRG) * Molecular Interactions Research Group (MIRG) *

Nucleic Acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

s Research Group (NARG) * Protein Expression Research Group (PERG) * Protein Sequencing Research Group (PSRG) *

Proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replication of DNA. In ...

Research Group (PRG) * Proteome Informatics Research Group (iPRG) * Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG)

Resource Technologies

Members of ABRF are involved in a broad spectrum of biomolecular technologies that are implemented in core facility settings: * Automation: high throughput screening, LIMS, robotics. * Protein/Peptide Chemistry: amino acid analysis, N- and C-terminal sequencing, peptide synthesis, peptide/protein arrays. * Biophysics: calorimetry, CD, fluorescence, light scattering, SPR, ultracentrifugation. * Flow Cytometry Fluorescence Activating Cell Sorting * Protein Expression, Identification, and Profiling: differential fluorescence, conventional 2-D

gel electrophoresis Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of biomacromolecules ( DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge or size (IEF ...

, disease biomarker discovery. *

Gene Expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...

and Profiling: gene arrays, real-time

PCR PCR or pcr may refer to: Science * Phosphocreatine, a phosphorylated creatine molecule * Principal component regression, a statistical technique Medicine * Polymerase chain reaction ** COVID-19 testing, often performed using the polymerase chain r ...

. *

Mass Spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

: qualitative, quantitative, and structural analysis of proteins,

carbohydrates In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may ...

, oligonucleotides, and lipids. *

Microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

light microscopy and imaging, Confocal Microscopy *

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

, DNA synthesis, RNA synthesis, genotyping. * Separations: 1- and 2-D PAGE, capillary electrophoresis, chromatography. *

Quality Control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach places ...

: GLP, GMP, quality and compliance. * Universal Proteomics Standard (UPS), a mixture of proteins used as reference standard in proteomics, introduced by the above-mentioned sPRG. This includes two sets: the original (UPS1, where all 48 proteins are at 48 pmol), and a dynamic range of concentrations (called UPS2), ranging from 500 amol to 50 pmol. * Other:

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

, carbohydrate analysis, differential display, recombinant protein production.

Annual Conference

Every year the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities annual conference is held during the spring in a varying North American city. This international conference is used to expose members to new and emerging biotechnology through lectures, roundtables, Research Group presentations, poster sessions, workshops and technical exhibits. * ABRF 2023, 7-10 May 2023, Boston, MA * ABRF 2022, 27–30 March 2022, Palm Springs, CA * ABRF 2021, 7–11 March 2021, virtual meeting due to COVID-19 * ABRF 2020, 29 February - 3 March 2020, Palm Springs, CA * ABRF 2019, 23–26 March, San Antonio, Texas; 30 Years of Challenging the Limits of Science and Technology, Opening Doors for the Future * ABRF 2018, 22–25 April,

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

; The Premier Conference for Core Services * ABRF 2017, 25–28 March, San Diego, California; A Forum for Advancing Today's Core Technologies to Enable Tomorrow's Innovations * ABRF 2016, 20–23 February,

Ft. Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

, Florida; Innovative Technologies Accelerating Discovery * ABRF 2015, 28–31 March, St. Louis, Missouri; Integrative Technologies for Advancing Scientific Cores * ABRF 2014, 23–25 March, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Team Science and Big Data: Cores at the Frontier * ABRF 2013, 2–5 March, Palm Springs, California; Tools for the Advancement of Convergence Science * ABRF 2012, 17–20 March, Orlando, Florida; Learning From Biomolecules * ABRF 2011, 19–22 February, San Antonio, Texas; Technologies to Enable Personalized Medicine * ABRF 2010, 20–23 March, Sacramento, California; Translating Basic Research With Advances in Biomolecular Technology * ABRF 2009, 7–10 February, Memphis, Tennessee; Application and Optimization of Existing and Emerging Biotechnologies * ABRF 2008, 9–12 February, Salt Lake City, Utah; Enabling Technologies in the Life Sciences * ABRF 2007, 31 March- 3 April, Tampa, Florida; Creating the Biological Roadmap * ABRF 2006, 11–14 February, Long Beach, California; Integrating Science, Tools and Technologies with Systems Biology * ABRF 2005, 5–8 February, Savannah, Georgia; BioMolecular Technologies: Discovery to Hypothesis * ABRF 2004, 28 February- 2 March, Portland, Oregon; Integrating Technologies in Proteomics and Genomics * ABRF 2003, 10–13 February, Denver, Colorado; Translating Biology Using Proteomics and Functional Genomics * ABRF 2002, 9–12 March, Austin, Texas; Biomolecular Technologies: Tools for Discovery in Proteomics and Genomics * ABRF 2001, 24–27 February, San Diego, CA; The New Biology: Technology for resolving Macromolecular Communications * ABRF 2000, 19–22 February, Bellevue, Washington; From Singular to Global Analyses of Biological Systems * ABRF 1999, 19–22 March, Durham, North Carolina; Bioinformatics and Biomolecular Technologies: Linking Genomes, Proteomes and Biochemistry * ABRF 1998, 21–24 March, San Diego, California; From Genomes to Function - Technical Challenges of the Post-Genome Era * ABRF 1997, 9–12 February, Baltimore, Maryland; Techniques at the Genome-Proteome Interface * ABRF 1996, 30 March- 2 April, San Francisco, California; Biomolecular Techniques

ABRF Award

The ABRF Award is presented at the annual ABRF meeting for outstanding contributions to Biomolecular Technologies. Past Award Winners: *2022

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz is a Senior Group Leader at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus and a founding member of the Neuronal Cell Biology Program at Janelia. Previously, she was the Chief of the Section on Organelle ...

*2021 - *2020 George Church for his groundbreaking research in genomic sequencing and his leadership in the fields of gene therapy and synthetic biology technologies. *2019 Richard M. Caprioli for the discovery of temporal and spatial processing in biological systems using mass spectrometry. *2018 Amos Bairoch for the development of community resources such as UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot knowledgebase, PROSITE, ENZYME, and

neXtProt neXtProt is an on-line knowledge platform on human proteins. It strives to be a comprehensive resource that provides a variety of types of information on human proteins, such as their function, subcellular location, expression, interactions and ...

. *2017 Sir Shankar Balasubramanian and

David Klenerman Sir David Klenerman (born 1959) is a British biophysical chemist and a professor of biophysical chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He is best known for his contr ...

for the invention of a method of next-generation DNA sequencing which is commonly known today as "sequencing by synthesis". *2016 Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for the development of CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing Technologies. *2015 John G. White and

William Bradshaw Amos William Bradshaw Amos (born 1945) One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: is a British biologist, Emeritus Scientist at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biolo ...

for the development of high-resolution, laser scanning confocal microscope *2014

Patrick H. O'Farrell Patrick H. O'Farrell is a molecular biologist who made crucial contribution to the development of 2-dimensional protein electrophoresis and ''Drosophila'' genetics. He is now a professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisc ...

, for the development of 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis. *2013

Leonard Herzenberg Leonard Arthur "Len" Herzenberg (November 5, 1931 – October 27, 2013) was an immunologist, geneticist and professor at Stanford University. His contributions to the development of cell biology made it possible to sort viable cells by their spe ...

and

Leonore Herzenberg Leonore Alderstein "Lee" Herzenberg (born February 15, 1935) is an American immunologist, geneticist and professor at Stanford University. Born in New York City, U.S.A., she never received a college degree but studied biology and worked as a re ...

for the development of Flow Activated Cell Sorting (FACS). *2012 Alan G. Marshall for the development of Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) Mass Spectrometry. *2011 Sir Alec John Jeffreys: Developed techniques for

DNA fingerprinting DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding. DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...

and DNA profiling *2010 Pat Brown: Pioneering work in the development of microarrays, and the diverse applications of this technology in genetic research. *2009

Mathias Uhlén Mathias Uhlén (born May 1954) is a Swedish biologist, biotechnologist, and Professor of Microbiology at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. His research interests cover antibody engineering, proteomics and precision medicine. Life ...

*2008 Ruedi Aebersold *2007

Donald F. Hunt Donald F. Hunt is the University Professor of Chemistry and Pathology at the University of Virginia. He is known for his research in the field of mass spectrometry, he developed electron capture negative ion mass spectrometry. He has received multi ...

*2006

Roger Tsien Roger Yonchien Tsien (pronounced , "'' CHEN''"'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

*2005 Stephen Fodor *2004

Edwin Southern Sir Edwin Mellor Southern (born 7 June 1938) is an English Lasker Award-winning molecular biologist, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. He is most widely known for the inventio ...

*2003 Franz Hillenkamp and

Michael Karas Michael Karas (born 1952) is a German physical chemistry scientist and Professor, known for his researches on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), a technique in mass spectrometry. Michael Karas studied Chemistry at the University ...

*2002 John Fenn *2001 Csaba Horvath *2000

Leroy Hood Leroy "Lee" Edward Hood (born October 10, 1938) is an American biologist who has served on the faculties at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Washington. Hood has developed ground-breaking scientific instrum ...

*1999

Marvin H. Caruthers Marvin H. Caruthers (born February 11, 1940) is an American biochemist who is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Caruthers earned a B.S in chemistry at the Iowa State University in 1962 and a Ph.D in Biochemistry ...

for pioneering contributions to the chemical synthesis of DNA and RNA *1998 Bruce Merrifield *1997 Lloyd M. Smith *1996 David Lipman *1995

Klaus Biemann Klaus Biemann (November 2, 1926 – June 2, 2016) was an Austrian-American professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work centered on structural analysis in organic and biochemistry. He has been called the "father ...

*1994

Frederick Sanger Frederick Sanger (; 13 August 1918 – 19 November 2013) was an English biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. He won the 1958 Chemistry Prize for determining the amino acid sequence of insulin and numerous other p ...

Journal of Biomolecular Techniques

The ABRF is the publisher of the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques. The journal is

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

and is published quarterly. The major focus of the journal is to publish scientific reviews and articles related to biomolecular resource facilities. The Research Group published reports include annual surveys. News and events, as well as an article watch focused on techniques used in typical core facility environments are also included. The current Editor-in-Chief is Ron Orlando, University of Georgia.

ABRF Executive Board

* Kevin Knudtson, ABRF President, Genomics Division, University of Iowa * Justine Kigenyi, Treasurer, KU Medical Center * Marie Adams, Van Andel Institute * Roxann Ashworth, Johns Hopkins University * Kym Delventhal, Stowers Institute for Medical Research * Sridar Chittur, SUNY Albany * Nick Ambulos, University of Maryland School of Medicine * Sue Weintraub, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio * Magnus Palmblad, Leiden University Medical Center * Ken Schoppmann, ABRF Executive Director

References

External links

Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities ABRFFederation of American Societies for Experimental Biology FASEBABRF Discussion ForumJournal of Biomolecular TechniquesABRF at LinkedInLeadership
{{authority control Scientific societies based in the United States Biotechnology organizations Professional associations based in the United States