| Automated
biobanking - an overview |
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There is a growing interest in automated
biobanking from Government, academic and commercial
organizations, in the need for large-scale automated
repositories for biological samples such as blood,
tissue, plasma and DNA. These repositories are intended
to be information resources for approved medical
researchers to develop new and better ways of preventing,
diagnosing and treating common illnesses such as
cancer, heart disease and diabetes. |
| Biobanking
- long-term maintenance and management of biological
samples |
| |
The term
Biobank is now being used to describe such facilities
and early examples include the new UK Biobank near
Manchester, England and the Karolinska Institute,
in Stockholm, Sweden. Central to these initiatives
is the need to maintain and manage large collections
of different biological samples under conditions
that preserve the useful content of the samples
for at least several years and in some cases decades.
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These
type of initiatives typically involve a library
containing from hundreds of thousands up to tens
of millions of individual sample aliquots requiring
storage at -80°C or colder. The samples require
careful management to guarantee sample conditions
over their lifetime whilst also providing a high
integrity of sample tracking to ensure reliable
retrieval. |
| Automated
biobanking and The Automation Partnership |
| |
These
scale-up challenges mirror those surmounted by compound
management in the Pharmaceutical industry in the
1990s and as a pioneer in this field The Automation
Partnership has developed a range of robotic solutions
to address the needs of automated biobanking in
the future. |
| ULT
sample management - Polar from TAP |
| |
ULT
sample management with Polar - sample storage at
-80°c in liquid nitrogen.
Building on TAP’s extensive experience in
ULT sample management for the pharmaceutical industry,
Polar’s novel design meets the growing demand
from national Biobanks, academic institutions and
private facilities for a new type of large-scale
repository for long term storage of biological samples
(20-25 years). |
| Polar
features: |
| |
- Sample storage at -80°c in liquid nitrogen
– for long-term sample preservation
- Unique modular design – offers flexibility
for different inventory sizes
- Robotic operation in controlled -20°c
conditions – eliminates the need for costly
manual intervention
- Full audit trail and sample traceability
– ensures requirements are met for effective
data management
- Optimal storage density – maximises
available storage space
- System control from TAP’s proven Concerto
software – that can be extended to control
manual satellite stores and external processes
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