INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Key Module Features:

The ATiM Inventory Management module allows researchers to manage and annotate the bank’s inventory.

This module works on a concept of Collection that will be used to:

• Gather human biological samples (Specimens) collected at the same time from the same participant and received in the biobank.
• Record collection data shared by all specimens of the collection.
• Gather all samples (Derivatives) produced by either collection specimen processing or collection derivative processing.
• Record collection Samples data.
• Gather all collection sample Aliquots.
• Record collection aliquots data.

This module also offers these functions:

• Annotate collection, samples and aliquots creating Review reports. [IN DEV]
• Assign quality values to sample recording results of Quality Control test realized on sample aliquot(s).

Definitions

Collection

A collection is used to group one or more specimens collected:

1. From the same participant.
2. During the same event [meaning both same date & time definition and same clinical event (surgery, follow-up, etc)].
3. Following a diagnosis (optional).

• Plus all the derivatives produced by either collection specimen processing or collection derivative processing.
• Plus all related aliquots.

An example of collecting data that could be tracked by the Inventory Management module is schematically presented in the following document: “Biobank Laboratory Activities Example“.

Sample

A sample defines human biological material that is either:

• directly taken from a participant at a specific date and called ‘Specimen‘ (ex: Tissue, Blood, Urine, Ascite, etc).

or

• produced from a processed sample at a specific date according to a specific Protocol and called ‘Derivative‘ (ex: Plasma, DNA Extraction, Cell Culture, etc).

Note 1: A processed sample is a sample modified (in terms of physical, biological and chemical properties) by: # Either physical action like centrifugation, cell scraping, etc (ex: Blood Centrifugation). # Or a set of successive laboratory manipulations according to a protocol (ex: DNA Extraction).

Note 2: The sample that will be processed will be defined as the Parent Sample.

A sample definition can be applied to a set of biological material entities called Aliquots (ex: blood tube, tissue slide, tissue block, DNA tubes, etc) when all of these entities:

• Match the previous definitions (All of them have to be taken from the same participant at a specific date or created from the same processed sample according to the same protocol at a specific date).
• Are representative of the whole.

Example 1

“Participant blood collected at the same date into five Paxgene tubes (tube containing Paxgene reagent) and three EDTA tubes.”

The five Paxgene tubes could not be differentiated and could be mixed into one. The five tubes also share identical information like collection date, tube reagent, donor, etc. Then these five tubes
can be considered as one sample split into five aliquots.

The three EDTA tubes contain a different tube reagent than Paxgene tubes. Therefore the chemical properties
of the blood and the future uses will be different. These three EDTA tubes have to be considered
as a new sample split into three aliquots.

Example 2

“Two DNA solutions have been extracted from the same frozen tissue, according to the same protocol
at two different dates. The first solution (called DNA.1) is stored into three tubes
and the second one (called DNA.2) is stored into a single tube.”

The three tubes of DNA.1 share identical information like processing date, SOP,
quality control results, etc. These three tubes can then be considered as one DNA sample split into three aliquots.

The tube of DNA.2 contains solution extracted at another date. The quality control will probably be different than DNA.1. Therefore the blood tube has to be considered as a new sample split into one aliquot.

Example 3

 “A tissue has been put into a cassette to create a tissue block. A tissue slide has been created from this block.”

The tissue block and the tissue slide are part of the same tissue and are representative of the whole.
The slide and the block can be considered as the same tissue sample split into two aliquots manipulated
into two different containers.

The sample concept is more a ‘theoretical’ concept that will allow recording once all information shared by many aliquots when each of them match the same sample definition.

The list of all sample types currently supported by ATiM is detailed in the following document “ATiM Inventory Elements“.

• directly taken from a participant at a specific date and called ‘Specimen‘ (ex: Tissue, Blood, Urine, Ascite, etc).

or

• produced from a processed sample at a specific date according to a specific Protocol and called ‘Derivative‘ (ex: Plasma, DNA Extraction, Cell Culture, etc).

Aliquot

An aliquot is a measured portion of a sample and one or more aliquots make up a sample.

An aliquot is:

• A representative of the sample.
• Physically identifiable.
• Linked to specific information that could not be shared by other aliquots of the same sample (storage position, storage temperature, use, concentration, etc).
• Taken for quality control, storage, research, shipping, derivative sample creation, etc.

The list of all aliquot types currently supported by ATiM is detailed in the following document “ATiM Inventory Elements“.

Quality Control

The Quality Control function allows users to assign one or many quality values to a sample. These values are results of quality controls executed on tools like spectrophotometer, bio-analyzer, etc.

For each recorded quality control result, the user can specify one or many aliquots that have been used to evaluate the quality of the sample.

Model

The Inventory Management module is based on:

• Three hierarchical concepts (or objects) that allow users to sort and manipulate information in a simplified way deleting duplicated information:

1. Collection
2. Sample
3. Aliquot

and

• Two additional concepts (or objects) that allow users to record information linked to previous concepts:

1. Quality Control (both for sample and aliquot)
2. Review (both for collection, sample and aliquot)[IN DEV]