Want to know more about what happens to a sample after ATP collects it? Fred, an extroverted sample, shares his account firsthand.

Hello.  My name is Fred, your roving cryovial here reporting from Alberta Tomorrow’s Project (ATP) biobank to tell you what happens to us frozen samples when we are delivered to our home in Calgary. First, a little about me. I’m one of the more than 1.2 million criovials that have been filled with blood since the start the ATP study. Our journey begins where we are collected – I was collected in Edmonton and am now sitting here in a matrix box (so they call it) with 95 of my cryovial buddies. To prepare us to be shipped to our home in Calgary, I was wrapped in a plastic bag yesterday and tucked into this styrofoam container with other matrix boxes on some dry ice. We were shipped over-night and just arrived in Calgary.

When we arrived in Calgary at the Richmond Road Diagnostic & Treatment Centre, we were wheeled into the biobank, and as I looked up, the lid of the transport box was removed, and two people dug us out from the ice. They removed the plastic transport bags and took us over to a computer. I could see on the computer the shipping manifest and they confirmed all of the matrix boxes arrived. Did you know each of us has a unique identifier? Just like humans, each one of is different and is never duplicated. This system helps the team at the biobank when they need to pull samples and help researchers with studies. Next, they put my box on a scanner that records all 96 tube ID numbers at one time to ensure each of us is located in the right position in the right box.