Terms for use of BPFG microarrays.
These are general guidelines - we are happy to discuss any arrangements consistent with our research goals and overall model.
Our microarrays are provided on an academic collaborative basis only.
The only primary restriction on the use of microarrays are that we try to avoid direct duplication of work between our collaborators, and we will not provide microarrays for projects that directly compete with those of collaborators who have contributed to the design and fabrication of individual arrays. We have not actually encountered problems of this type to-date, and so far no request for microarrays has been declined.
We do not make claims for IP, nor do we place any restriction upon the nature, content, or submission of any subsequent publications (beyond those normally expected associated with coauthorship), unless this is related to projects in which we are involved at their inception and initial conceptual development.
We normally request the inclusion of one coauthor, sometimes two, depending upon the input and activity into the project. This reflects the normal input into experimental design and analysis, and also the work involved in the design, production, and quality control of the microarrays. Under some circumstances we reserve the right to request that co-authorship be exchanged for acknowledgement of supply of the materials if, for example, we feel that we do not share the conclusions drawn by the collaborator.
The microarrays are provided upon a cost-recovery basis, which for most project targeted and microbial arrays are supplied for £50 each.
The prices for the forthcoming complete mouse and complete human microarrays have not yet been determined, but they are likely to be higher due to the higher cost of the probe sets, and because they are likely to be printed across more than one microarray slide.
This charge primarily addresses the cost of probe generation and replacement, the slide substrates and printing consumables, and the costs of maintaining the printing and QC infrastructure. Different arrangements are made with groups when involved in generating project-related chips, for example in which the costs of probe synthesis are covered by the collaborating groups. Different arrangements are also entered into for projects that are planned and for which infrastructure charges can be different distributed in grant applications. Those with new projects, and those at the stage of planning prior to funding applications are encouraged to contact Dr Saunders as early in this process as possible.
Microarray printed for specific projects that require non-contact Piezorray printing are handled differently, as are project and methods development activity. Those interested in this type of work should contact Dr Saunders to discuss them.
We do not required that you use any particular labelling or detection system in your experiments if you perform these at your own centres. We do provide recommended methods / protocols for those with the appropriate local microarray processing infrastructure. Those who perform their microarray hybridizations with us are normally expected to use our in-house developed and optimized methods and protocols - for which we supply the reagents on a separate cost-recovery per-slide basis.
We do not required that you use our analysis infrastructure for analysis, or any particular methods for data analysis. However, this is available to collaborators (a separate charge to the CBRG is applicable for those outside of the supported parts of the Medical Sciences Division at Oxford) including access to an integrated BASE microarray LIMS and data analysis system. Collaborators are strongly encouraged to use this system as it enables us to ensure that there is a good level of experimental data administration, and facilitates collaboration at the stage of data analysis.
We request, but do not require, collaborating groups to provide us with their images, experimental design information, and data in a way suitable for larger scale systems / meta analysis studies using combined datasets, and for methods analysis. Data provided used in this way would, of course, always be appropriately acknowledged (including co-authorship) in any resulting publications, and would never be used without clear consent.