Frozen Ark Project proves biobank preservation and databasing solves

To maximise the potential of biobanking, standardised sampling procedures and preservation techniques need to be developed, and stored samples should be supported by an accessible database. Many museums store animal material and university laboratories and zoos have collections of tissue, DNA, banks of cells and gametes, mostly used for research purposes. However, many tissue collections are not in a form suitable for the long-term preservation of undamaged DNA and the role of cryopreserved biomaterial in UK conservation programmes has been growing. The Frozen Ark and its partner biobanks receive a high volume of requests for samples, but none possess the infrastructure to actively quantify this demand, emphasising the current lack of organisational infrastructure in many collections.