The Ice-Bucket Makeover: Portable Laboratory Cooling Gets with the Times

Data variability caused by differences in methods of acquisition and processing of human and animal samples (such as blood, nasal-, spinal-, mucosal fluid or tissue) is emerging as a major roadblock in post-genomic
basic and clinical research (NCI Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR), June 2007).

Worldwide efforts are currently under way to agree on a common standard operating procedure (SOP) or operating system for pre-analytical sample handling (see also www.isber.org/ibc.html, www.biospecimens.cancer.gov, www.web.genome.duke.edu/cores/ biorepository, www.oecd.org). Pre-analytical sample handling covers the spectrum from collection and preparation to storage of molecules, cells and tissues.

The methods are often developed in an ad hoc fashion or inherited and adapted from older methods. The lack of standardisation, however, affects the quality and comparability of data across all fields of research and technological platforms. To advance personalised drug discovery and development, a new push for novel and improved methodologies for sample collection, preparation, shipment and quality assessment is required. This article will focus on temperature-sensitive bio-medical samples and will re-examine a century-old method for cooling and freezing.