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.
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: TBA
Speaker: Ben Smith (University of California, Berkeley)
Speaker: Jerome LaCombe (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Cassie Sather (Fred Hutch Cancer Center)
Speaker: Neil Doherty (University of California, Santa Cruz)
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-1:15 Session 2: Negotiating Skills
Sponsor: 10x Genomics
Moderator: TBA
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: TBA
Speaker: Amy Sprowles (California State Polytechnic
University, Humboldt)
Speaker: Kartoosh Heydari (University of California, Berkeley)
Speaker: Donna Hendricks (University of California, Berkeley)
3:25-3:55 Coffee Break
3:55-4:30: Lead into Keynote Address
ABRF Introduction: Sara Bowen (Barrow Neurological Institute)
Sponsor: Qiagen
Moderator: TBA
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: TBA
Speaker: Adeela Syed (University of California, Irvine)
Speaker: Mohan Paturi (University of California, San Diego)
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: TBA
Speaker: Julie Auger, Executive Director Research Operations (Salk Institute)
Speaker: Kevin Karl Mack (University of California, Berkeley)
Speaker: Isabel 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: TBA
Speaker: Kristin Kleinhofer
Speaker: Luis Alvarez (Merritt College- Bioscience Program)
Speaker: David Kililea
3:00-3:15 Coffee Break
3:15-4:45 Session 8: Core Sustainability
Moderator: TBA
Speaker: Raj Uthamanthil (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)
Speaker: Vincent Nguyen
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
