Biotechnology core facilities: trends and update

A survey of 128 biotechnology core facilities has provided data on the finances, services, space requirements, and personnel. An average facility had four full-time personnel and 7.5 major instrument systems, and occupied 969 sq. ft. Average total income was $244,000/year, but annual user fee income was only $125,000. Typically, facilities required substantial institutional support or grants. Cost recovery (user fee income divided by total income) averaged 49%. During the last 5 years user fee income, total income, and cost recovery have increased. In-house charges for protein sequencing and peptide synthesis increased approximately 30%, while oligonucleotide synthesis charges decreased by 74%. The costs (charges corrected for subsidy from non-user fee income) for most services did not significantly change, except that oligonucleotide synthesis costs decreased by 25% in 1992. DNA synthesis had the highest throughout per month (116 samples), followed by amino acid analysis (86 samples) and DNA sequencing (67 samples). Other services averaged from 5 to 60 samples. DNA synthesis and purification were the services used by the greatest number of principal investigators. A number of services including DNA sequencing, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, RNA synthesis, electroblotting, and carbohydrate analysis have been introduced in the last 3 years. Although these services are characterized by high levels of methods development and non-user runs, they are offered by twice the percentage of facilities as in 1989, and are increasingly contributing to facility income.