Long-Term Sample Storage

Sample integrity is essential for any type of scientific research. The CTDC provides centralized biorepository services that include secure, alarm-monitored, cold storage solutions that ensure samples are stored with the utmost of integrity. The CTDC is currently able to store samples at 4˚C, -80˚C, and - 150˚C. Because constant temperature is critical to sample viability, our cold storage equipped with a monitoring system that notifies personnel should the temperature of any unit deviate from its acceptable range.

CTDC has four freezers: 3 x -80°C Freezers; 1 x -150°C Freezer

Freezers are contained in a secure, key card restricted, laboratory space.
All freezers are under preventative maintenance contracts, through Southeast Scientific, which includes:
- Annually
  - New alarm battery
  - New condenser filter
  - Documentation
- Biannually
  - NIST Temperature Validation
  - Documentation
24/7 monitoring of all units are monitored is performed by Vaisala.
- CTDC staff are notified in the event of temperature excursions.
- The CTDC maintains access to backup storage units in the event of a catastrophic failure.
- Temperature logs are available upon request.
Freezers are thawed and cleaned annually for maintenance purposes to ensure they operate at their optimum level. During this time, samples are moved into a secure and monitored backup unit that is controlled by either the CTDC or Department of Pediatrics.

How are samples stored?

Samples are stored in 81-place or non-divided boxes, depending on the size of the sample being stored.
Boxes are specific to the study and the sample type. This keeps studies separate from one another and makes retrieval of samples more efficient.
CTDC staff will communicate with the users about the storage and labeling methods before service initiated.

User Agreement for Long-Term Storage

User will be charged annually based on the number of boxes.
1. User is charged by box no matter how many samples are inside.
2. The charge is incurred on the date the box is stored and covers 1 year of storage.
3. A 2 month threshold is set to trigger the long-term storage fee.
4. If the storage time is less than one year, the user is still charged the full amount for 1 year of storage.
Users can either have the CTDC relabel and log their samples or they can choose to maintain their own inventory and simply store boxes in our freezers. If a user wants the CTDC to inventory and relabel their samples, there will be a cost associated with this work.
The user will have detailed information of how the samples are labeled, where the samples exactly locate, and under what storage conditions.
CTDC staff will inform users when temperature excursions occur (e.g. Temperature of 80° freezer drops to -70° for one hour). Temperature occurrence report is available upon request.
The rate will be paid on the anniversary of the individual boxes storage. Users will be contacted one month before the anniversary if they will continue this service.
Personnel’s efforts of entering and retrieving samples will be billed separately from storage rates.