WACD 2026 Program: Stronger Together in Changing Times
Preliminary program schedule is given below. Please note that the session order and timings are subject to change.
Current Abstracts and Bios Now Available
Monday, September 28th
1:00-5:00 Pre-meeting workshop: Business Skills
Overall theme: Value of Cores
Topics: Business Planning, Strategic Planning
Julie Auger, Executive Director Research Operations (Salk Institute)
Tuesday, September 29th
8:30-9:00 Registration
9:00-9:15 Welcome & Opening Remarks – Host: Diane Miller (WACD President)
Land Acknowledgement
9:15-11:00 Session 1: Expanding the Horizons of Core Technologies
Sponsor: Takara
Moderator: Ben Abrams (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Speaker: Ben Smith, Director, CRL-MIC (University of California, Berkeley)- “Expanding Beyond Imaging: Technology Development as a Strategic Service for Core Sustainability”
Speaker: Jerome LaCombe, Assistant Professor (University of Arizona)- “Organ-on-chip technologies as an integrative hub for biomedical research: toward a connected core facility”
Speaker: Cassie Sather, Associate Operations Director, Shared Resources (Fred Hutch Cancer Center)
Speaker: Neil Doherty, Graduate Student, Salama lab (University of California, Santa Cruz)- “Pushing the boundaries of long time course imaging of organoids in a core facility”
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-1:15 Session 2: Negotiating Skills
Sponsor: 10x Genomics
Moderator: Jenn Page (Salk Institute)
Speaker: Holly Schroth, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer and Distinguished Teaching Fellow- Haas School of Business (University of California, Berkeley) – “The Art of Working with People to Get Things Done”
1:15-2:10: Lunch, Vendor Visits and Networking
- Vendor Booths OPEN
2:10-3:25 Session 3: Non-Federal Funding Mechanisms
Sponsor: Illumina
Moderator: Jenn Page (Salk Institute)
Speaker: Amy Sprowles, Professor and Director of the Humboldt-CIRM Shared Resources Laboratory (California Polytechnic Institute Humboldt)- “The Humboldt-CIRM SRL: Opportunities and Challenges in Building a Stem-Cell Modeling Core Facility in one of California’s Most Remote and Geographically Isolated Areas”
Speaker: Kartoosh Heydari, Director, Cancer Research Laboratory FACS Core Facility (University of California, Berkeley)- “From FACS to Hi-D Clinical Trial FACS”
Speaker: Donna Hendricks, Managing Director (California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences at UC Berkeley)- “Core funding sources – sources for sustainability”
3:25-3:55 Coffee Break
3:55-4:30: Lead into Keynote Address
ABRF Introduction: Sara Bowen (Barrow Neurological Institute)
Sponsor: QIAGEN
Moderator: Cherise Stanley (University of California, Berkeley)
4:30-5:30 Session 4: Keynote
Speaker: Uri Manor, Associate Professor (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) – “Novel Molecular and Computational Tools for Imaging Organelle Dynamics”
5:30-7:00: Cocktail Reception
Sponsor: QIAGEN
Wednesday, September 30th
8:30-9:00: Breakfast Showcase
9:00-10:45 Session 5: AI advances, ethics, and workflows
Sponsor: NEB
Moderator: Sara Bowen (Barrow Neurological Institute)
Speaker: Adeela Syed, Associate Project Scientist & Manager, Optical Biology Core (University of California, Irvine)- “The Core of It All: Science, Mentorship & Responsible AI”
Speaker: Yasmin Kassim, Postdoctoral Fellow (University of California, San Diego)- “From Months to Minutes: Scaling 3D Biomedical Image Analysis with AI”
Speaker: Siva Ponnan (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)
Speaker: Sorena Nadaf-Rahrov (Ci4CC- Cancer Center Informatics Society)
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:15 Session 6: Recharge Setting and Guidelines
Sponsor: LabGiant
Moderator: Cassie Sather (Fred Hutch Cancer Center)
Speaker: Julie Auger, Executive Director Research Operations (Salk Institute)
Speaker: Kevin Karl Mack, Assistant Director, Costing Policy & Analysis (University of California, Berkeley)- “Recharge at UC Berkeley”
Speaker: Isabelle Girard (University of California, Davis)
12:15-1:30: Lunch, Vendor Visits, Networking
- Vendor Booths OPEN
1:30-3:00 Session 7: Cores in the Community
Sponsor: Roche
Moderator: Cassie Sather (Fred Hutch Cancer Center)
Speaker: Kristin Kleinhofer, Patient Advocate and Speaker (Independent)- “The Power of Shared Resources: A Patient’s Story of Hope, Survival, and the People Behind the Cores Who Made It Possible “
Speaker: Luis Alvarez, Adjunct Professor (Merritt College- Bioscience Program)- “Merritt Microscopy Program: Changing Lives Through Community “
Speaker: David Kililea, Program Manager (University of California, San Francisco)- “A Core Journey – Possibility to Adversity to Community”
3:00-3:15 Coffee Break
3:15-4:45 Session 8: Core Sustainability
Moderator: Aarya Vaikakkara Chithran (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)
Speaker: Raj Uthamanthil, AVP, Research and Innovation (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)- “Regional Partnership for Core Sustainability”
Speaker: Vincent Nguyen, Systemwide Procurement Life Science Category Manager (University of California Office of the President)- “Cores of a Good Contract: Negotiation and Staying Compliant”
Speaker: Aaron Larson, Director of Operations, Shared Research Resources (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)- “Automated Core Facility Charges: Integrating the API to create core requests for users and ensure reliable revenue capture”
4:45-5:00 Closing Remarks
