The need for good storage practice.

The advent of molecular and other analytical technologies has resulted in a dramatic increase in the need for biological sample storage. As science and medical fi ction become fact, specimens such as blood, serum, and tissue may hold the key to understanding disease processes or outcomes and represent invaluable intellectual property. As such, the services that support this progress need to be developed in parallel and held to the same standards of excellence and accountability to ensure the highest level of quality, visibility, and compliance. Unfortunately, samples are often stored in an ad hoc manner without standardized processes and lack the robust and scalable information systems necessary to delineate collections and maximize their use in research. Because of the intrinsic value of these samples, poor sample management represents a signifi cant missed opportunity for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to exploit the value of archived samples. Accordingly, preserving samples to the highest standards has become clearly critical, not only for prospective studies, but also for retrospective analyses. Because of the inherent value of each sample, it is imperative to design sample storage processes that will ensure future scientifi c discovery is not put at risk by compromised sample integrity. Yet, despite its inherent value, the management of sample storage has received scant attention when the need to set standards for Good Storage Practice (GSP) is most urgent.