The Five Services that all Biobanks Should Have

It goes without saying that bio banks have become a scientific necessity. Every type of biological science based organization, from research labs to hospitals, will find themselves in need of bio bank services with increasing frequency. This increase in bio bank demand is inevitably resulting in a rise in the number of bio banks in existence; this means that your lab has options. Here are five services that any bio bank that you chose to work with should include:

Optimized storage methods

Improperly stored biological specimens are likely to experience freezer burn or decomposition. This damage will most likely make the tissue sample useless for your endeavor, so the tissue bank supplying goods such as these will have effectively wasted your precious time and possibly ruined your experiment or procedure.

In order to ascertain whether or not the tissue bank that you are considering working with uses adequate tissue storage procedures, you should ask them how they store their tissue samples. Snap tissue freezing is one of the best ways to store tissue, as it reduces the likelihood of freezer burn to almost nil; asking if they use this freezing method should be the first question on your list.

Tissue variety

If a bio bank does not have the tissue that you need, then they are of no use to you. If you work in a lab that often requires a myriad of tissue samples, then you will want to pay especially close attention to this, because building a working relationship with a single bio bank that can provide you with all of the tissue samples that you need is priceless.

Customization of biobanking services

Sometimes you need a rare tissue sample prepared in a manner that is so specific that it can only be obtained through a custom request. For these instances, you will want to work with a bio bank that has experience with collecting these types of tissue samples, because they are most likely to get it right.

To determine whether or not the tissue bank that you are considering working with provides an adequate amount of biobanking service customization, you should ask them if they offer the following services:

• Customized tissue extractions
• Collection preference options
• Specimen testing services

 Fast shipping speeds

All scientific endeavors are time sensitive processes, so when you need a tissue sample, you most likely need it as soon as possible. Many high quality bio banks know this well, and that is why they offer same day shipping services.

Try to work with tissue banks that offer these types of rapid shipping services, because even if you don’t often have an urgent need for a tissue sample, the time will arise sooner or later; you don’t want to be stuck working with a tissue bank that cannot get you the tissue samples that you need in an expedited manner.

 A knowledgeable team

Knowledge is power. Your tissue bank’s team should include serious scientific professionals who are highly respected in their field, and more importantly, know what they are doing.