We have worked with a number of organisations, including the UK DNA Banking Network (UDBN) and the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) to help them manage their bio sample data in an effective way.

We have developed a sample management system called Azura BioBank which comprises two main components,  PreLIMs (the sample capture and tracking system) and CoMS (the BioBank Management System).

Although Azura BioBank will take information from your LIMS (to show stock levels and generate picklists), it works independently so can be used in conjunction with any existing LIMS.

PreLIMS allows the creation of questionnaires for studies and allows researchers to capture all the phenotypic information they require along with the sample and track it through to the BioBank. The questionnaire data is held in a secure area, only accessible by the Principal Investigator's team, until such time they wish to release all, or some of it, into the main BioBank - CoMS.

CoMS allows researchers to search the samples within the BioBank and discover suitable samples across many collections. It provide a complete networking system to allow people to create groups of contacts where private discussions can take place and allow collaborations to form, culminating in a request for the actual samples and picklists needed for the new project.