A core facility or contract lab: sequencing, imaging, cytometry and molecular work for the labs around you — the grant calendar, the recharge rate, and the reproducibility the journals now ask for.
A core starts as a shared instrument with a calendar and a rate per hour or per sample that covers service contracts, reagents and the hands that run it. Bill every job, even the favors: the record of who used what is what gets the next instrument funded. Put the rate, the turnaround and the sample requirements on one page everyone can find.
Services become a menu — Sanger and NGS, imaging hours, cytometry, authentication, mycoplasma testing, training — and the year takes the grant calendar's shape: the rush before September 30 and before budget-period ends, the quiet of late December. A manager who can plan reagent orders and instrument time around that calendar is worth more than another machine.
Industry and outside academic users pay a higher tier and steady the year, but they can't be more of the money than the institution's rules and your federal rate review allow. Review the rate yearly against actual costs, keep the subsidy explicit, and publish turnaround as a number you meet.
Growth is a second shift on the instruments you have, an authentication-and-QC line every lab is now asked to use, and training that turns users into careful users. Replace instruments on a schedule written down years ahead; a core whose sequencer dies in August has no September.
| Revenue stream | Pays | Scales |
|---|---|---|
| NGS library prep and sequencing The line that grows: more labs sequence every year, and library prep is where a core earns its keep. Price per sample with the run share folded in, and say the turnaround. | Per sample or per run share | Growing |
| Sanger sequencing Still the daily check on a clone or a primer, in small batches. Volume slips as NGS and vendor services take the big jobs; keep it cheap and fast rather than defend it. | Per reaction | Slipping |
| Imaging and cytometry hours Confocal, flow and sorting sell hours. Assisted hours cost more and fail less; train users and sell the unassisted hour to the ones who pass. | Per hour, assisted or not | Steady |
| Molecular services qPCR plates, Westerns, plasmid preps and cloning, and the occasional CRISPR editing project priced as a project, not an hour. | Per plate, blot or project | Steady |
| Cell line authentication and mycoplasma testing Journals and NIH ask for both; a core that tests every line coming in and going out sells peace of mind by the sample. The fastest-growing line in the sample book for that reason. | Per line or per sample | Growing fastest |
| Cryo-storage and repository The only subscription a core has. Small money, but it is the money that arrives in December. | Per box per month | Small, recurring |
| Training Pays for itself twice: the fee, and the instrument time a trained user doesn't break. | Per person or per course | Small |
| Industry and outside users Steadies the year and funds the subsidy for the labs down the hall; watch the concentration — one company account can become your largest client without anyone deciding it. | A higher tier | A fifth of the jobs, a third of the money |
Nothing here is medical, safety or regulatory advice. Biosafety levels, select-agent rules, human-subjects and animal protocols, export controls on some reagents and sequences, and your institution's recharge and cost-accounting policies all apply before anything in this handbook does; follow them and your biosafety officer. Figures carry their sources and their dates. This is general information, not legal/tax advice.
Run this against real numbers → The same handbook inside the tool, on a worked example you can swap for your own spreadsheet. Free, no account.Figures are sourced from published industry research (IBISWorld, trade associations and regulator data) and are stated with their year. They describe typical conditions, not your situation. This is general information for business owners, not financial, tax, or legal advice.