CCG Onboarding Discussion Guide for New Projects

To give your project the best possible start, please let us know about new projects or incoming researchers at least one month in advance—ideally, as soon as your plans are confirmed. This helps us schedule orientations, prepare reagents, and set aside the necessary time to support you.

You can notify us by emailing ccg-lab@calacademy.org. If we don’t receive advance notice, we may only be able to provide the basic lab safety orientation, since we’ll be balancing other prior commitments. This is especially important for time-sensitive projects or short-term visiting researchers—we want to make sure they can hit the ground running.

New researchers or returning researchers starting a new project are encouraged to schedule a one-on-one meeting with the Director (alam@calacademy.org) before they start. These discussions can offer guidance, feasibility, and best practices, supporting well-planned and executable projects.

To help us prepare and make sure we can support your project in the best way, we’d love to chat through a few background details together. These questions provided are just a guide to help us think about resources, training, and logistics up front so things run smoothly once you get started.

Funding & Purchasing

For Internal Academy Researchers (Interdepartmental Billing):

• Will you need assistance with purchasing any non-standard supplies (i.e. anything that is not already in stock and available to be checked out in the lab)?

For External Researchers (Invoices):

• How will payment be facilitated through your home institution?
• Will you be purchasing supplies independently, or do you need support from CCG?

Project Scope

• What is the scale of your project (number of samples, expected lab procedures, sequencing approach, expectation of in-house vs. externally contracted data generation, etc.)?
• For large-scale projects, will you need project-specific or additional equipment (e.g., freezer space, multichannel pipettes)?
• Will you need project-specific reagents (e.g., primers, library prep kits)?
• Does your project have a strict timeline or deadline?
• As the project progresses, will there be sufficient lab storage for DNA, reagents, libraries, and intermediate products?

Support & Training

What support or training would you like or need from CCG staff?

• Basic lab safety orientation (required for new users)
• Special hazardous materials safety training (e.g., Phenol/Chloroform, Formaldehyde)
• DNA extraction training
• Basic PCR and Sanger sequencing training
• Genomic library preparation and sequencing training (please specify type or strategy)
• Specialty equipment training (e.g., Sonicator, TapeStation, BenchSmart, qPCR, etc.)
• After-hours lab access
• Other?

After the Project

Once the project is over, what is your plan for your tissues, DNA, and any molecular products? Will they be discarded? If not, where will they be stored?