Sample Management
Figure 20: Samples can be cherry picked directly from TTP Labtech’s comPOUND or arktic stores (at any temperature from ambient to -80˚C), then aspirated directly from 2D storage tubes using mosquito into any density microplate (in nL-µL volumes)
employ unique pneumatic transport of storage tubes, providing industry-leading reliability by not requiring robotics in the cold zone. Recent devel- opments have seen this transport system extended to transport storage tubes between labs and even buildings utilising TTP Labtech’s lab2lab technolo- gy. Samples can be transported between a variety of devices such as stores and other integrated sys- tems for direct analysis, such as HPLC, LC/MS and NMR. The latest development sees the marriage of low-volume 2D barcoded tubes with the TTP Labtech Storage systems and mosquito nL liquid handler. This combination enables mosquito to directly access the 2D storage tubes and prepare assay plates directly without the need for interme- diates. This development offers enhanced efficien- cies and significantly reduced dead volumes prov- ing exciting possibilities for compound manage- ment, HTS, Synthetic Biology and a range of genomic applications (Figure 20).
Conclusions There seems little doubt that preserving the quality of stored samples (both compounds and biospeci- mens) should be a high priority to those managing and end-users of compound management stores and biorepositories. What is less obvious is are there major innovations in available sample stor- age technologies that can identify poor sample quality or monitor sample degradation and so min- imise erroneous downstream analytical results?
Drug Discovery World Summer 2017
Clearly recent advances in sample ID and tracking described above will undoubtedly help resolve problematic sample identification or misleading inventory info and give much greater confidence in maintaining a full audit trail. While new storage tube configurations will enable enhanced screening efficiencies, facilitate greater reliability and signifi- cantly reduce dead volumes. New cryopreservation technology also heralds more reproducible cell freezing with higher viability. In addition, advanced data management systems using integrat- ed sample data analytics have the potential to iden- tify the right sample characteristics for medical research studies. But do any of these technologies give reassurance that the stored samples are actual- ly fit for their intended purpose and quell the crisis in end-user confidence in the quality of stored sam- ples specifically associated with some biobanks? Probably the MEMS-based sensor chip approach to temperature and ID tracking over the sample life cycle comes the closest, as potentially it could lead to stratification of samples into fit-for-purpose cat- egories based on their previous temperature expo- sure history. However, tracking sample tempera- ture lifecycle by itself will not improve on the qual- ity of samples that were intrinsically of poor qual- ity at the outset, and will only enhance the integrity among stored samples if there is willingness to act upon the result of ‘outside set range’ temperature sensing (eg by removing and/or destroying such samples from the available collection). In an ideal
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