In the entire world, there are approximately 300 million biological specimens that are stored at below -80 °C. However, majority of them can’t be used. In fact, 70 percent of samples are worthless due to the lack of traceability according to US National Institutes of Health. Without having appropriate records for environmental storage, there is just no way of validating these samples whether it’s been preserved adequately or not.
There are two kinds of cryogenic storage and these are the:
- Transactional Storage and;
- Archival Storage
We’ll briefly discuss what these two storages are about.
Transactional Storage
This is covering specimen that’ll be used for the next 3 to 12 months. Most of the time, it is used by researches who need that material on several occasions.
Archival Storage
For long-term storage application, then this is the type of storage option used.
It is critical to come up with a storage plan. The objective is ensuring that the viability and value of the samples are preserved. The lack of storage plan might result to compromise of material which is a complete waste of money and time. In the process of creating long-term storage plan, there are few factors that should be covered.
Storage Objective
Among which would be the reason why the samples ought to be stored and how many of it will be stored. This question is important as it instills the value of research material allowing researchers and scientists to regulate and track samples.
Biological Viability
Regarding this matter, it answers the question of how long the sample has to be stored. This actually depends on the type of material or biological sample. The storage temperature has a direct impact onto the material stored. Research showed that samples prepared and stored below temperatures of -135 °C could be kept indefinitely and serve its purpose.
The same thing goes when it comes to transporting these samples from one laboratory to the other. Specialized trucks are used in order to get the job done which are also sometimes convoyed by towing companies to ensure that if ever something wrong happens, it is not going to disrupt anything from the actual plan.