Case Study · Pro-curo Software Ltd

Chain of custody for a multi-room tissue and cell biobank

University Hospital Cardiff · NHS hospital biobank

The challenge

This biobank manages samples through multiple rooms: an office, a receiving area, two processing rooms and freezer storage. Material moves between all of them. The risk was not losing samples outright, it was losing track of which stage a sample had reached, and doing so within a restricted budget.

What was put in place

• Pro-curo was set up with barcode labels at every location.
• Samples are scanned at each stage: receiving, processing, splitting and final storage.
• Each scan builds the chain of custody, which is visible in the sample history.

The outcome

The complete chain of custody is visible in the sample history, and the history view makes it immediately obvious if a sample has missed any step in the process. The complex multi-room workflow was handled within the budget available.

Who this is relevant to

Biobanks whose material passes through several physical stages, where the question is not only where a sample is but which steps it has been through.

Other case studies

• Sample tracking for a small research group handling human samples, research institute
• Tracking a sample inventory across multiple sites, research laboratory, multi-site
• Tracking samples to the bench and to the person who took them, university research group

Related reading

• Biological sample tracking software, how Pro-curo handles sample tracking end to end
• The Importance of Sample Tracking in Life Science Laboratories
• HTA Traceability Standards and the Traceability Audit