Greening Radboud Biobank – reduction number of aliquots in storage for future initiatives

To ensure the long-term continuity of the Radboud Biobank and of individual biobank collections, it is important to strike a balance between the financial, societal, and operational aspects. To this end, a new business model has been introduced for the Radboud Biobank.

In addition, as of October 1st, 2026, the Radboud Biobank will switch from 2 mL tubes with printed labels to 1 mL tubes with barcodes.The aim of investing in barcode biobanking is to achieve sustainability, reduce sample mix-ups and losses, improve sample quality, enhance efficiency, decrease costs and foster innovation by uitlizing fewer palstics, reducing storage space requirements and implementing track-and-trace and sample handling automation. 

Like LUMC and NKI, the Radboud Biobank will also store fewer aliquots per collection tube, as experience has demonstrated that rarely more than one-third of all stored aliquots are used.

The changes are:

• 10 mL blood tube - 4 x 1 mL 2D barcode tubes instead of 6 x 0.5 mL in a 2 mL tube
• 4 mL blood tube - 2 x 1 mL 2D barcode tubes instead of 3 x 0.5 mL in a 2 mL tube

The changes apply to all new and ongoing biobank collections and to new projects. For details, please contact the Radboud Biobank.

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