The Center for Advanced Technology

The Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) operates within the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Our core mission is to facilitate and enhance research endeavors within UCSF laboratories by providing essential resources and hosting advanced instrumentation. While our primary focus remains on serving UCSF, we extend a welcoming invitation to other academic institutions and industry sectors, offering access to our facility through prior arrangements. Collaboration knows no boundaries at CAT, as we strive to foster innovation and drive impactful discoveries.

The CAT houses such advanced instrumentation as DNA sequencers (Illumina and PacBio), qPCR and dPCR machines, pipetting robots, and other more specialized equipment for genomics and bioinformatics. In addition to our permanent equipment, the CAT demos and tests new instrumentation from vendors who are looking for a central location to house their equipment.

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.

Please visit our website for more information: cat.ucsf.edu

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.
• To subscribe to our CAT bioinformatics list, send an e-mail to listserv@listsrv.ucsf.edu leave the subject blank, and include "subscribe Bioinformatics FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" in the body without the quotes in the e-mail.

CAT Staff

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

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

Matt Settles | Managing Director, Bioinformatics | matt.settles@ucsf.edu

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

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

Nethmi Gunathilake | Research Associate | nethmi.gunathilake@ucsf.edu

Eric Yu | Research Associate | eric.yu@ucsf.edu

CAT hours of operation and location

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

FAD Website: fad.ucsf.edu

FAD Staff

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

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

FAD hours of operation and location