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I am currently serving on an ISAC committee established by Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz (President of ISAC) and chaired by
Franchesco Mauro. The committee is to assist disadvantaged countries in the
general field of cytometry. We are trying to organize workshops in several
countries and generally help our colleagues in countries going through very
tough economic times.
My suggestion is that we try to accumulate several instruments to donate to
certain institutions. We would try to get B-D and Coulter to perhaps provide
help in shipping and setting up their appropriate brands as well. If not,
it might be possible to arrange the setup otherwise. If done correctly,
the instruments that we broke our teeth on (sometimes litterally!) would be
put to good use and we would not feel like we were not getting "value" !
There are good reasons to do this:
1. The PR generated for your institution would be significant
2. The instrumentation is not performing useful tasks if it is unused
3. Good scientists in other countries desperately need our help
4. There are probably many years of work left in old instruments if they
have TLC
5. I think that ISAC needs to be more proactive in these situations - it
should lead not follow!
6. This will make you feel real good as a responsible scientist doing a little
extra
7. Your Dept head, Dean, VP or other executive heavy might see this as a good idea and provide institutional support throught
international programs etc.
8. You will have extra space when you get rid of the old machine
Problems that need solving:
1. Old machines need good service - who services them?
2. Is there any point in sending machines with expensive lasers that already
economically stressed institutes cannot repair or maintain?
3. Who pays the shipping if we can't get B-D or Coulter to help? (This woudl be
great PR for these companies by the way).
4. How do we organize this (I will worry about that if there is +ive response.)
5. We don't want to send junk to our colleagues
6. fill in here.......
Please respond to CYTOMETRY not me personally as I think this must be discussed
by the network. Darzynkiewicz will be visiting my lab at Purdue for the next 3 days and I intend to discuss this proposal with
him. Prompt replys will be shared with him directly.
Regards
Paul Robinson
Purdue University Cytometry Labs
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