Abstract
Over the last ten years the Proteomics Research Group (PRG) has undertaken technical studies that have covered a wide range of issues unique to the rapidly developing field of proteomics and have included a range of qualitative and quantitative experiments. The PRG studies have resulted in a great deal of attention not only within the ABRF community but also outside as is evident from numerous articles dealing with proteomics methods, procedures and standardization. As the field continues to develop, the diversity of instrumentation and laboratory workflows have grown in tandem. Therefore, in the PRG2011 study it seemed especially useful to perform a survey to help the PRG define future studies based on the current blend of sample types and technologies and obtain a view of emerging trends. A survey was created to ascertain three main insights into core facility function: 1) How labs interact with their clients, 2) The capacity of labs to meet the demands of their clients, and 3) The blend of experimental techniques offered to and requested by clients. Survey questions were designed to obtain information from both users of core facilities and the directors and personnel of core facilities. Questions covered such topics as the type and age of instruments in use, how data is analyzed and presented to client, sources of funding, and emerging proteomics trends. Results are compiled en masse and presented without regard to institution. Early results reveal that about 2/3 of the responders are not ABRF members, and at least one lab still has an operational mass spectrometer that was acquired in 1990!