In many applications, such as pharmaceutical and medical research, law enforcement, and military identification, it is often desirable to store and to have access to numerous biological samples. Conventional biorepositories or other sample storage facilities utilize liquid or low temperature cryogenic systems for sample storage. These liquid and cryogenic systems are expensive both to create and to maintain, and current technology generally presents system operators with complicated and labor intensive maintenance and administrative responsibilities. In addition, these systems do not address work flow concerns that arise when large numbers of samples are being processed simultaneously. Under such conditions, samples can be left at ambient temperature for long periods of time, resulting in sample degradation.
Related to the issue of work flow, it is becoming increasingly important to ship samples that are collected in the field or elsewhere so that the samples can be analyzed and/or stored at a remote location. However, shipping samples on dry ice is expensive and hazardous and standard modes of shipping, like those employed by carriers such as FedEx, can subject samples to large temperature fluctuations, including high temperatures that can denature or degrade biomolecules present in biological samples. For example, FedEx cautions that temperatures in carrier vehicles can reach 140° F. (60° C.) in closed, parked carrier vehicles during the summer in southern climates. Similarly, for worldwide transportation applications, the U.S. military assumes a worst case scenario where samples are exposed to temperatures as high as 160° F. (71° C.).
There is a need in the field to develop additional biomolecule storage materials and systems.