Quarter 1 Newsletter 2023
5 April 2023
Quality Management Recertification
By successfully completing the external recertification audit of our facility in March, we are pleased to announce that we have maintained our certification to ISO 9001.
This means that our Quality Management System continues to demonstrate its ability to provide services that consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements. We remain the only UK Multi-Core Facility to have this accreditation, supporting both our Cardiff University users and external customers.
To complement our ISO 9001:2015 certification, we are also accredited for Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) to enable us to perform clinical trials assay work. Our next biennial external audit is in June 2023.
We continue to encourage Cardiff University researchers and external businesses to contact us about our services and quality management advice.
Training on Specialised Technologies
It was great to see so much active participation in the recent face-to-face training events on the BD FACSymphony™ A3 Cell Analyzer and Nanostring GeoMX Digital Spatial Profiler, which complements the Nanostring nCounter in CBS. We also enjoyed welcoming researchers to our lab this month to learn about Biacore surface plasmon resonance technology.
Please continue to talk to or contact our team to learn about these technologies, how to access them and how they can support your research.
Out and About
We have enjoyed attending face-to-face conferences and networking events at the start of 2023, attending events both within GW4 and further afield across the UK. The team has attended a range of conferences including Biomarkers 2023 and BioWales in London 2023, and has welcomed being able to promote Central Biotechnology Services and Cardiff University whilst learning about new technologies and trends in our sector.
Wellcome Discovery Research... it's time to be bold and creative!
At their recent regional events, Wellcome has been announcing a large shift in strategy regarding Discovery Research, with their broad mission now being to support discovery research that 'transforms life, health and wellbeing'.
Wellcome is very keen to encourage more researchers from Wales and the South West to apply for discovery research funding, as demonstrated by their first regional discovery event being held in our region.
The current round of Wellcome Discovery Awards closes 11th April with the next round opening on 1st June.... now is the time to be bold and creative!
Training Update
We will continue to hold a range of technical training events in 2023, some face-to-face and some virtual, some free and some on a cost recovery basis, to support researchers as much as we can. Please continue to check our website and follow us on Twitter for details of upcoming events, many of these being open to both internal and external researchers.
Read on to learn about our flow cytometry and FlowJo courses in May...
Flow Cytometry and FlowJo training sessions
Click on the links above for more details and to register. To cover our costs, the full day flow cytometry theory course has a fee of £50 and the half day FlowJo course a fee of £25. These fees are invoiced afterwards.
Remember that one on one consultancy from InCytometry to Cardiff University researchers remains free to users. Contact Graham directly for flow cytometry support.
Science in Health
Many of the CBS team, together with School of Medicine colleagues, supported the Science in Health Live event this month. This event gave Year 12 students studying science and maths A Levels the opportunity to discover more about potential careers and the latest internationally recognised science discoveries taking place within healthcare and life sciences. CBS colleagues hosted several lab tours for about 60 students where we discussed the role of core facilities in research and demonstrated several high-end equipment platforms. It was a really fun experience and thanks a million to James Matthews, Karen Edwards and others for organising this excellent event.
