Here is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding the consulting services provided by the ICB. If you have questions that are not addressed below, please e-mail us at icb@med.cornell.edu.

1. How do I stay up to date with the services and resources that the ICB offers?
2. How will a typical project proceed?
3. How is the institute compensated for support and infrastructure costs?
4. I am writing a grant application and could use some help with bioinformatics or computational approaches. Can the Institute help?
5. How do you determine which projects are collaborations and which projects are services?
6. What types of training does the institute provide?
7. What is the fee structure?

How do I stay up to date with the services and resources that the ICB offers?

You should subscribe to the Institute’s announcement mailing list (see how to subscribe here). When you subscribe to this list, you will receive monthly emails with news about services and resources offered by the Institute. A section of the email will describe noteworthy articles and computational tools that we have learned about.

Back to the top

How will a typical project proceed?

See the consulting page on our web site. This page illustrates the steps followed for a typical project.

Back to the top

1. For long-term projects, we can charge salary and infrastructure costs to the clients’ grants. The salary for the appropriate institute staff member is charged for a period of time to the grants. Similarly, infrastructure costs are charged as pro-rated costs and include maintenance and administration costs for the computational resources maintained by the ICB.



2. For short-term projects, we charge by the hour. The hourly rate for service and collaborative work allows the Institute to recover salary support and infrastructure costs. (See the fee structure for details.)

1. In the simplest cases, we will provide you with a letter of support that describes the infrastructure, expertise and fees applicable to your project.



2. Some projects may require new bioinformatics/computational developments, such as development of methods, algorithms, databases or information systems. These projects are collaborative in nature and we invite you to contact members of the Institute directly (see contacts) to discuss the project and determine mutual interest.

How do you determine which projects are collaborations and which projects are services?

In general, when we have an important role in the design and execution of the computational work the project is collaborative, and we request that members of the institute who contributed to the work be co-authors. This is especially clear when writing the part of the article that describes the computational results requires the assistance of members of the institute. Service projects typically are initiated by investigators who are familiar with the bioinformatics techniques but need help with certain tasks (for instance, to access specific types of infrastructure, computational tools, specific training needs). Service projects also include data analysis (e.g., microarray, genomics) when the analysis is conducted according to established protocols, and does not require new methodological developments.

Back to the top

1. We are organizing workshops about bioinformatics methods and tools. Such workshops should start early 2004. We will make announcements through the mailing list.



2. The institute is also developing course modules to be incorporated in the curriculum of the WMC Graduate Program in Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology



3. We offer individualized training. This is appropriate if you would like somebody in your lab to learn a specific bioinformatics method. The hourly fees for training are listed under our fee schedule.



4. We offer training material on our web site (see the education section) that you can consult to learn about most common methods in bioinformatics and microarray analysis.

What is the fee structure?

The Fee Structure web page provides up-to-date information about the current fee structure for the ICB.

Back to the top