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I received 21 answers; 19 from the U.S. 1 from Germany and 1 from Australia.
All responses were from academic institutions.
A) Of the 21, fifteen indicated that their labs are continuously in the red
ranging from few $thousands to as much as 50% of their budget annually.
B) Two labs indicated that they manage to break even but that's because they
have no service agreements and the salaries of the operators are not
considered as part of the equation.
C) One response (that from Germany) was from someone in the process of
putting a lab together and did not believe they could break even.
D) One lab consistently breaks even, but it is operated by a part time
operator and the lab does not keep maintenance agreements in effect.
E) One lab breaks even after applying what was named an "accounting marvel"
consisting of Cancer Center Support Grant and other federally funded grants
plus an agreement with the University to cover major repairs.
F) This was the most interesting response (from Univ. of PENN): This lab is
in the black "so much so that we have to spend money". This is a huge lab
with 6 instruments and a full service contract coverage. The lab serves more
than 200 users in 26 different departments/divisions. My feeling on this is
that this is a university wide core lab and no one else on campus has been
allowed to purchase their own instruments. this way the University has to
support one lab only, all the resources can be pooled together, and all the
users pay into one big pot. I don't think a core lab can function
successfully (financially, that is) in an environment different than this.
It is interesting to point out that some of the responses in group "A" came
from people who used to direct flow research labs in the 70's and 80's and
were never in the black. Some are still in the business with the same
experience, while others have left for one reason or the other. It seems not
much has changed!!!
Again thank you all for your responses. I hope this summary comes in handy
for some of you.
Edward F. Srour, Ph.D.
Indiana University School of Medicine
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CD-ROM Vol 3 was produced by Monica M. Shively and other staff at the
Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories and distributed free of charge
as an educational service to the cytometry community.
If you have any comments please direct them to
Dr. J. Paul Robinson, Professor & Director,
PUCL, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Phone: (765)-494-0757;
FAX(765) 494-0517;
Web