Use of Biological Samples in Medical Research

The science of human body is very complicated. People across the world suffer from different diseases and astonishingly the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of many of them are yet to be discovered. Hence medical research plays a key role in developing medicines, formulating different methods of treatment and predicting the symptoms for diseases. In order to conduct this research human specimens are required. Research of human biological samples constitutes blood, urine, tissues, organs, hair, nail clippings, or any other cells or fluids. These samples are obtained from healthy volunteers or from patients who have expired.

Donation of such samples lends a helping hand for scientists to carry out their research work but at certain times, ethical and practical considerations may cause difference depending on circumstances. Blood samples possess the risk of bacterial infection at the sampling site and hence care and precaution must be strictly adhered to. Cleaning the site prior to sampling is very much necessary for this reason. The biological sample bank aims at storing different types of biological specimens at low temperature for future research in the fields of genetics, biochemistry and molecular biochemistry and is managed in accordance with international recommendations and ethical guidelines.

To avoid wastage of biological material after unfreezing, the samples are stored into aliquots of small volume, which can be used for different laboratory analyses. biological samples are usually processed using materials resistant to low temperature in order to prevent them from outside contamination. Samples are them stored into liquid nitrogen containers. Specially installed softwares keep track of all the stored samples and their location in the containers to match the biological bank information with the data bank information. The samples which are stored can be used for the purpose of research only on donor’s consent.

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For more information on biological samples, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the biological samples!

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