Biobanking Science: HIV RNA Stable at -80°C in Biobanks
Biobanks facilitate research by collecting, storing and sharing samples. One of the major concerns that biobanks face is how to best maintain sample quality over long time periods. The AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) is one of biggest groups...
Biobanking Science: Using FTA Cards to Preserve Nucleic Acids
Biobanking organizations may use a range of different methods to preserve biological samples including cryopreservation, fixation and paraffin-embedding and FTA cards. Biobanking Samples by Cryopreservation Cryopreservation remains the gold standard for long-term biobanking because this method maintains the integrity and biological...
Biobanking Science: How Storage Affects Inflammatory Biomarkers
Biobanking storage conditions can affect long-term sample quality and integrity1. A number of biomarkers are particularly sensitive to storage temperature and can degrade even when biobanked at -80°C. Furthermore, researchers often struggle with variable results from assays run in...
Biobanking Science: Cryopreserving Mouse Embryos
The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) is one of the biggest suppliers of transgenic mice for biomedical research. JAX has a large biobank that cryopreserves and recovers thousands of different mouse strains. Biobanking mouse strains has many benefits for researchers. Biobanking...
Biobanking Science: Mining Paraffin-Embedded Samples for DNA, RNA and Protein
Biobanks may choose to store biological samples as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks. FFPE preservation is the standard method of collecting and storing surgical pathology samples. This biobanking method preserves tissue morphology at room temperature for many years and is...
Biobanking Science: UK Biobank Compares DNA Quantification Methods
UK Biobank is a major resource for health researchers around the world. UK Biobank collects and stores health, genetic and lifestyle data on 500,000 participants, with the goal of finding treatments and cures for age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s,...
Biobanking Science: ISBER Best Practices for Biobanks
Biobanks face the challenge of storing and handling many different types of biological samples. Unlike chemicals, biological samples are living. Therefore, it is much more difficult for biobanks to retain the normal structure and function of biological samples throughout...
Biobanking Science: Plastic Tubes Can Contaminate Biobanked Samples
Plastics Can Cause Experimental Errors in Biobanks
Biobanks and laboratories use an array of plastic consumables such as pipette tips, sample storage tubes and cell culture flasks. Plastic consumables are convenient, cost-effective and can be sterile, DNase and RNase free....
Biobanking Science: New Non-Toxic Cryoprotectant Solutions
Cell therapy is a rapidly growing field that uses live cells to treat patients. This presents unique biobanking challenges because, unlike traditional pharmaceutical products, cells must be alive and functional to be effective therapeutics. Unless cell therapy cells are...
Biobanking Science: High-Speed Freezing Protects Tumor Cell Quality
Biobanks around the world store many different types of biological samples. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are commonly stored in biobanks as these cells can be used to diagnose cancer in patients and to monitor disease progression. CTCs break off...
