Core policies

All submitted samples should indicate in submission form if samples should be saved for pick-up or discarded. Samples saved for pick-up will be held for four weeks following the completion of the project before being discarded regardless of selection on form.

Data will be sent to PI upon completion of project and held internally for six months after which data will be moved to cold storage and held for two years. Cost for retrieval of data from cold storage (projects completed more than 6 months ago) will cost $1000 for retrieval.

While exact turnaround times vary based on project size and current demands on the core, we aim for most standard projects to be completed within 2-3 weeks from sample drop-off. For very large projects, turnaround times will be discussed with PI during planning stages of the project.

All external projects (outside the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC) require approval and a service contract signed by both parties. Please contact the core to initiate any external projects well in advance (six months) of project needs to accommodate time for service agreement routing and approvals.

HSSC@CHP: Billing is processed by the Health Sciences Core Research Facilities (HSCRF) administration. If you have questions about billing, please contact Tracy Crawford at tlc@pitt.edu. 

All customers must register on the HSCRF website: http://www.hscrf.pitt.edu/.
In order to receive services all customers must provide a Pitt 32 digit account number for billing.
All customers will be invoiced monthly upon completion of services.  Pre billing is not permitted.
Customers must retrieve invoices from the HSCRF website.

Single Cell Core: Billing is processed by the Single Cell Core directly. If you have questions, please contact Heidi Monroe at hmm10@pitt.edu.

UPMC Genome Center: Billing is processed by the UGC directly. If you have questions, please contact Dara Kozack at Genome_Center@upmc.edu.

Why did I get two bills from two cores for one project?
HSSC and the Single Cell Core are University of Pittsburgh cores, while UPMC Genome Center is a separate entity within UPMC. Our billing processes are distinct, thus for some projects we need to bill each portion of the project separately based on work done by each core. Please contact us if you have specific questions on this policy.

HSSC@CHP: If samples initially passed all QC and sequencing run failed, libraries will be rerun for no additional fee to the investigator. If samples did not meet QC standards and PI chooses to go ahead, libraries can be rerun for any failed sequencing at cost to the PI. Any adjustments to avoid another failed run will be discussed with PI and core staff directly.