Research Core Strategic Advisory Committee (RCSAC)

 

Membership / Meeting Summaries & Opportunities for Comment / Focus Group Questions

Committee Membership

David R. Manning, Ph.D. (Chair)
Professor of Pharmacology

Rita J. Balice-Gordon, Ph.D.
Professor of Neuroscience

Warren B. Bilker, Ph.D.
Professor of Biostatistics

James H. Eberwine, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology
Interim Co-Director of the PENN Genome Frontiers Institute

Roger A. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology

Gary A. Koretzky, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Vice Chair of Research for Department of Medicine

Mark A. Lemmon, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Jonni S. Moore, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Director of the Biomolecular and Cellular Resource Center

Robert A. Perlish
Administrative and Financial Officer, Department of Genetics

M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Scientific Director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute

Barbara A. Vance, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Research Initiatives, Abramson Cancer Center

---

Meeting Summaries & Opportunities for Comment

Meeting # 1 (02/19/08)
Committee charge from Glen N. Gaulton, Ph.D., Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer

Meeting # 2 (03/14/08)
Discussion with James Alwine, Ph.D, former Assistant Dean for Research Core Facilities

Meeting # 3 (03/25/08)
Hallmarks of an extraordinary core resource

Meeting # 4 (04/09/08)
Current perceptions of core resources

Meeting # 5 (04/29/08)
Models of overall structure (decentralized/centralized)

Meeting # 6 (05/13/08)
Discussion with Mark L. Tykocinski, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Meeting #7 (05/27/08)
Discussion with Craig B. Thompson, M.D., Director of the Abramson Cancer Center and discussion with Garret A. FitzGerald, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics

Meeting #8 (06/03/08)
Discussion with Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D., Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Interim Co-Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Meeting #9 (06/10/08)
Presentation and discussion with Strategic Needs Focus Group

Meeting #10 (06/24/08)
Presentations and discussion led by Obligations Focus Group and Stability and Performance of Individual Cores Focus Group

Please direct any comments or questions to Chair Dave Manning at manning@upenn.edu

---

Focus Groups

The members of RCSAC have divided into three separate focus groups, or subcommittees, which are meeting regularly. 

Strategic Needs Focus Group
Chaired by Jim Eberwine

What model for core resources best serves the strategic needs of the research community?

•What should a SOM core represent?
•How might core resources be linked to faculty recruitment, and faculty recruitment to core resources?
•How can core structure best integrate and reinforce the programmatic needs for departments, centers, and institutes?
•What kinds of cores will be needed in the next 5–10 years? What is the best model for their creation/life-cycle? What is the best model for flexibility and change?
•How can core structure best integrate with that of other schools and institutions?
•What structure best minimizes inefficiencies and duplications? Do natural groupings among cores exist?

Stability and Performance of Individual Cores Focus Group
Chaired by Rita Balice-Gordon

What model for core resources best serves to promote stability and performance of individual cores?

•What are the hallmarks of an extraordinary core?
•What are specific problems of the current cores, individually and collectively?
•What keeps a core on the cutting edge of technology?
•How should expensive equipment be handled (purchase, depreciation, turnover)?
•How do investigators currently perceive the general and specific state of core resources? What has to change?
•What best promotes accessibility and visibility of a core?
•How does one weigh developmental costs? View broader economic impact?
•How does one create stability in core structure function?
•How can the performance of a core best be reviewed and changes implemented?
•Are current reporting structures optimal?
•What kind of structure best supports formation and maturation of a core?
•Can space among cores be more effectively arranged or managed?

Obligations Focus Group
Chaired by Rob Perlish

What model for core resources best serves to clarify and reinforce obligations of the school, institutes, centers, and departments?

•What are these obligations, exactly? What should they be?
•To what extent are cores subsidized, and by whom? What forms does subsidization take? What is the purpose of the subsidization?
•How can the school best leverage space and money to the advantage of core structure?
•Should the school be more visible or more direct in administration of core resource monies?
•How are strategic needs communicated?
•Who provides space, at what cost?
•What is the best form of governance and/or structure for advocacy?