Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) and Fabrication and Design Center

The Center for Advanced Technology

The Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) is a part of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Our primary mission is to support research labs at UCSF through the resources that we host, but other academic and biotechnology organizations are welcome to use our facility through prior arrangements.

The resources found at our facility typically would be beneficial to multiple research groups, rather than be limited to one group. We have available standard research equipment such as qPCR machines, pipeting robots, a NanoDrop spectrophotometer, and a variety of plate readers. We take pride in providing more specialized equipment such as a contact microarray printer, 50 watt laser cutter, and 3D printers. We are especially interested in hosting cutting edge technology found in equipment such as the Illumina MiSeq, NovaSeq X Plus, NovaSeq 6000, BioRad QX200 digital PCR system, and Beckman acoustic (Echo 525) and tip-based (Biomek i5 and i7) liquid handlers. Our staff provides support and training for all of our resources.

In addition to our permanent equipment, we demo new instruments from vendors who want a central location to house their equipment. Vendors can contact us to setup demos.
We share our physical space with the latest microscopy technologies hosted by the Nikon Imaging Center and with a BD FACSAria cell sorter hosted by the Laboratory for Cell Analysis at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Find more cores on the Research Resource Program Core Search

CAT e-mail lists:

• To receive e-mail updates for general CAT info, send an e-mail to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu. Leave the subject blank and include "subscribe cat_info FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" without the quotes in the e-mail. This list will not receive e-mail related to sequencing.
• To subscribe to our sequencing list, send an e-mail to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu. Leave the subject blank and include "subscribe cat-seq FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" without the quotes in the e-mail.
• The CAT receives some institutional support from UCSF. This allows us to offer most of the equipment free of charge to UCSF users. To justify the ongoing support, please acknowledge the CAT and CAT staff in publications and notify us when your CAT-supported work is published by filling out this form.

Fabrication and Design Center

The KAVLI-PBBR Fabrication and Design (FAD) center is a part of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Located on the 1st floor of UCSF Genentech Hall, the FAD is dedicated towards enabling the design and manufacturing of prototypes for UCSF's research and medical communities. Unlike traditional job shops, the FAD focuses on training researchers, medical practitioners, and scientists in the fundamentals of design and engineering to expedite prototype development. We have several rapid prototyping tools including 3D printers and CNC machines for users to quickly implement their concepts and obtain preliminary results.

In addition to the user-facilitated prototyping, the FAD also offers assistance with 3D model design and consultation on an appointment basis as well as traditional service/job requests.

FAD slack workspace: ucsf-fad.slack.com

CAT Staff

Eric Chow | Director | eric.chow@ucsf.edu

Delsy Martinez | Managing Director | delsy.martinez@ucsf.edu

Emily Conrad | Research Associate | emily.conrad@ucsf.edu

Jordan Maas | Research Associate | jordan.maas@ucsf.edu

FAD Staff

Eric Lam | Director | eric.lam@ucsf.edu

Michael Bunker | Medical 3D Printing Engineer | michael.bunker@ucsf.edu

CAT hours of operation and location

FAD hours of operation and location

Links and Resources

1. CAT Website
2. FAD Website
3. Sequencing UCSF