New equipment installs in progress

Posted on 2022-02-102022-03-09 by Beverley Rabbitts

The CSC revamping is in full swing here!

This is quite an epic feat happening over at PSB465! The physical facility is being upgraded for electric, networking, data storage space, and gas/vac/air, and also the impact on air temperature regulation. We have added IT infrastructure of 4 instrument controller PCs and 2 analysis workstations, with a variety of new software suites, and a new server for image data. We’ve redesigned the floorplan and have our final lab benches in place, including an Explorer G3 workstation and custom designed tables for our Phenix microscope and Flex robots. About 20 crates have crossed our threshold over the past two months, as well as about a dozen manufacturer-employed installation technicians, and a host of UCSC facilities, woodshop, electricians, net opps, and ITS people. We’ve worked with a team of UCSC purchasing agents, accountants, and receiving specialists. We have so much to be grateful for! and the fun is only just beginning.

CSC welcomes Matylda Zietek

Posted on 2022-02-012022-03-09 by Beverley Rabbitts

Starting today, Matylda will be working on screening projects for Scott Lokey and Fitnat Yildiz. She comes to us from the Typas lab at EMBL in Heidelberg, bringing with her 15+ years experience in research, including expertise in high throughput screening. She also has extensive knowledge and skills in areas of microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell culture. She came highly recommended, being described as “extremely efficient and beloved” and a rare asset. See her profile and CV here.

New instrument arrivals

Posted on 2022-01-102022-03-09 by Beverley Rabbitts

Starting in December and continuing through January, the CSC has been receiving our $2M of new equipment. Our new EnVision plate reader is ready to use, with time-resolved fluorescence, alpha-screen laser technology, ultrasensitive luminescence detector, internal temperature control, and other features. Stay tuned as we uncrate and install the rest!

UC Davis Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program visit to the CSC

Posted on 2021-11-192022-03-09 by Beverley Rabbitts

The CSC was one stop along the science facilities tour that the UCD PREP postbacs, a few UCD undergrads, and the UCSC PREP postbacs took today. Read all about their visit in a beautiful article here. We at the CSC wish you all good luck with your future endeavors!

a screenshot of the Newscenter article with a photo of Scott Lokey

Membership in UC Drug Discovery Consortium

Posted on 2021-11-092022-03-09 by Beverley Rabbitts

Announced in a UCSC Newscenter article, UCSC has joined the UC DDC, “a cross-campus initiative aimed at building a drug discovery community that actively promotes research translation through industry partnerships.” Dr. Lokey is serving as the site lead for UCSC in the Executive Committee, the goal of which is “to promote drug development by providing expertise in drug discovery education and training to UC researchers, promote access to related core facilities throughout the UC system for researchers and partners, and build relationships between industry partners and researchers for enhanced project translation.” To all users of the CSC: please contact us if you have a drug discovery project idea, and together we can apply for seed funds from the UC DDC!

“From the UC researcher’s perspective, it’s not just a funding opportunity. Industry partnerships provide great training for graduate students and postdocs who get to see how the pharmaceutical industry works and make connections with people. Also, doing this kind of translational research gives you a sense that the work you’re doing has real-world applications.” – Scott Lokey

Fall 2021 Kickoff

Posted on 2021-09-202021-10-08 by Beverley Rabbitts

As we start the 2021-2022 school year, we want to say WELCOME! to all the new and returning students, trainees, faculty, and staff. We see your resilience in the face of a pandemic and other crises that continue to bring loss, instability, and conflict.

Students are back in person at UCSC and the new semester started with CSC participation in the PBSci annual conference at Roaring Camp in Felton, the Chemistry and Biochemistry annual conference at the beautiful UCSC Arboretum, and a core facilities panel for the Chemistry and Biochemistry new grad students’ orientation. Click to see our poster below, on which we brag about our new space, new personnel, new website, new logo, new RRID, new grant…and very soon new equipment and compound libraries.

$2 Million Grant Revamps Chemical Screening Center

Posted on 2021-07-122021-10-08 by Beverley Rabbitts

A press release in the UCSC University News came out on July 12, 2021 announcing the receipt of our NIH grant. It is a High-End Instrumentation Grant (S10) in the amount of $1.9 million for upgrading our equipment. The purchases are outlined here. (screenshot from news.ucsc.edu)

“We have a lot of faculty members who are pushing the limits on understanding biological systems in a way that might lead to novel therapeutic targets…But up until this point in time, very few people on our campus have been able to then take that and make a leap from that basic biological discovery to some sort of a translational benefit. I think the new instrumentation and upgrades to this facility are going to open up a whole new arena for those faculty members.”

– John MacMillan, UCSC Associate Vice Chancellor of Research and Professor of Chemistry

CSC says farewell to Britney

Posted on 2021-07-082021-09-27 by Beverley Rabbitts

We had bittersweet lunch today to celebrate the contributions of Britney Hernandez. An MCD graduate from UCSC, Britney served as our exceptional, hardworking Junior Specialist II from January 2020 to July 2021. She maintained the CSC operations through the pandemic and performed key cytological profiling assays for the Center for High Content Functional Annotation of Natural Products and other collaborators. She leaves us for new adventures on the East Coast, and we wish her good luck at her new position of Research Specialist at Emory University. (photo from Linkedin.com)

a photo of a human pyramid with a dog at the top

Chemistry/Biochemistry Picnic

Posted on 2021-06-182021-10-08 by Beverley Rabbitts

On June 18, 2021 the UCSC Chemistry and Biochemistry department gathered at Delavega park for a softball game and barbecue. The puppy, Buddy Rabbitts, made lots of friends, too.

Putting the CSC on the AD2C map

Posted on 2021-06-172022-01-14 by Beverley Rabbitts

Today, the CSC joined the Academic Drug Discovery Consortium, “a professional society dedicated to building the community of academic drug discovery labs and the companies, universities, and government agencies that support and partner with these centers.” It connects us with over 150 drug discovery centers in 17 countries. Michelle Arkin, our external advisory board member, is on the board of directors, and Barbara Slusher, the head of a similar high throughput core facility at my alma mater, Johns Hopkins, is a founding member.