Time to ‘spring clean’ your biobank?

The start of a year is a good time to clean my home office, after working from home for almost two years it was really needed! I decide if I should archive some of my handwritten notes, clean up the mailbox and get the office ready for the upcoming year.

Biobank managers who are responsible for thousands of samples worldwide are doing their best every day to make sure samples are stored under the right conditions. However, at some point they also need to decide on the path forward. They need to consider:

• Is there a chance that the samples can be used in the future?
• Are there enough insights on the conditions of preparation and storage?
• Is there funding to keep them stored going forward?

Answers to these questions could trigger a discard procedure; there may be legal and ethical barriers that could ask for additional checks and balances before a suggestion to do a ‘clean up’ can be made.

At some biobank conferences in the past the mantra “A good biobank is an empty biobank” was popular, because it showcased that the samples were being used for research and discussions around discarding samples didn’t need to take place.

The reality is that using the space and energy consumption only for those samples that have high value sounds like a logical choice, but you can’t simply keep adding capacity to store new incoming samples when it is unclear if they might ever be used. Therefore, making a clean start as in my home office for a biobank, is not an easy decision and certainly not something that can be decided in a split second. You need to consider that those samples may have the potential to make the difference when a new groundbreaking analytical technology is launched several years from now, and if there is no option to go back to the patient who donated the material and data, it would not be a good position to be in.

A different clean up solution can simply be the optimization of the capacity that is available. Are all freezers, shelfs and racks full, or have some empty spaces emerged and slowly started spreading like weeds due to samples going in and out. The Thermo Scientific™ TSX Ultra Low Freezer has a largest capacity of 700 2″ boxes and you can learn more about different storage options and configurations with racks, trays and boxes, enabling you to optimize the amount of samples you can store, whilst enabling better organization and ease of use with our online guide.

Cooperation and consolidation of sample collections from different projects can also be an effective way to optimize your storage.
‘A clear desk is also a clear mind’ is a point that is still up for discussion, but it certainly supports a good start to a new era.

If you would like to learn more about your storage options and speak to a representative at Thermo Fisher Scientific or join our biobanking community to receive helpful tips, then please visit our biobanking hub: here >