SENDING SAMPLES

Users who want to access to the Bank Services for establishing and storing cell lines and/or DNA, should contact the Bank at least 48 hours before sending the specimens. Shipments should be sent early in the week (usually Mondays and Tuesdays) to ensure  arrival before the following weekend.

Users must provide relevant clinical data of the patient on a specific form. The form must be sent with the sample and is available electronically or may be obtained by e-mail contacting the Bank. If more than one sample is sent, a form for each sample must be included.

Before sending the specimens, users have to obtain informed  consent  from the patient or his/her parents. Before signing the consent patients should be informed  about the possibility of banking the sample, the possibility of authorising or not the use of the sample for research and the possibility of knowing or not the information that could result from subsequent investigations. Moreover, patients should be informed about the security procedures employed to ensure confidentiality.

To protect confidentiality, the samples will be stripped of personal identifiers and assigned a code. Access to the data linking the code to the patient is restricted to the Bank staff and is protected with a password.

Details of cell lines and DNA source will remain confidential.

Users can limit the distribution their cell lines and DNA samples. In case of limitation we shall request users’ permission before any transfer of the sample.

For lymphblastoid cell lines establishment a  minimum of 5 ml of blood in sodium heparin tubes is required and should arrive as soon as possible after sampling, preferably within 48 hours.

 For DNA extraction a  minimum of 5 ml of blood  containing 100 microlitres of sterile EDTA 0.5M pH8 is required. Samples should be sent at room temperature immediately after sampling and should arrive within 24 hours. Samples which can not be sent immediately must be shipped frozen.

No payment is required for the service (except for shipping charges).                                              

 ORDERING SAMPLES

Cell lines and DNA samples are distributed only to qualified professionals. Samples must be used for research purposes only; no commercial use is allowed. The specimens cannot be distributed to other investigators without previous written permission of the Bank curator. If the samples are quoted in any publication the investigator must include the Bank in the acknowledgements; a reprint of  publications will be sent to the laboratory.

No materials are released prior to receipt  a signed ordering form  with a brief project description and the agreement to accept the above reported terms.

The request form is available electronically or may be obtained by e-mail contacting the Bank. The form must be sent by mail. If an user wants to order more than one sample, a form for each sample must be submitted.

No payment is required for the service (except for shipping charges).