Policies and Fees

Instruments can be used on an hourly or daily basis. The rates are calculated based on the operating cost of the facility, taking into account HHMI funding and the projected usage of each instrument. Our goal is to ensure that income from user fees does not exceed that needed to perpetuate the service on a self-sustaining basis. Rates for users from academic institutions other than the University of Chicago ("external") are ~52.5% higher than those for UChicago-affiliated users ("internal").

Fees for Non-Commercial Users

Other Services

The Biophysics Core facility is now offering complete AUC service and assistance: cell assembly ($100); sedimentation velocity data analysis ($100); and sedimentation equilibrium data analysis ($200).

Though the Tecan Safire2 microplate reader is no longer under the supervision of the Biophysics Core, we continue to provide training on this instrument for $100 per user per session.

Scheduling policies

You will be billed for any time you reserve on any machine if the Facility is not notified or the reservation not canceled. If you have made a reservation and wish to cancel it, please do so as soon as you can. Sending us an email or calling us to inform us of the cancellation is also helpful, particularly if the reservation is for an instrument that is typically used all day (AUC, SPR, ITC, DSC). If you can't be there, someone else can.

For now, there is no additional penalty. You will simply be billed for the time you reserved.
NB: Even if we find someone to use the instrument in your stead, you will be billed if you have not canceled.
For now, there is no required minimum length of time between the cancellation and the reservation. But be reasonable. Generally, try to cancel (and warn us) at least 24 hours prior to the reservation.

Enforcement of this policy depends on how busy the instrument is at the time. All billing of no-shows and late cancellations will occur at our discretion. We will be as fair as the situation will allow.

Damage Policy

Due to a number of incidents in which instrumentation was damaged due to negligent operation by trained operators, the Biophysics Core Facility has laid out an explicit policy regarding damage caused by Facility users. Should an investigator cause physical damage to any object at the Facility, including (though certainly not limited to) instruments, external components necessary for proper instrument operation, laboratory equipment, and computers, the Principal Investigator under whom the user was working at the time the damage occurred is responsible for funding replacement or repair of the object, at the discretion of the Director of the Facility.