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Acceptable Samples
- Solid media for bacterial and yeast species, frequently completed culture plates from the microbiology lab.
- Collection of anaerobic, BL-3, fungal and virology isolates must be discussed with the specimen bank director regarding best means of collection.
Standard Procedure
- Collect plates after completion of the culture.
- Verify that the isolate is in pure culture, else set up new sheep’s blood agar plate with the strain and incubate at 37*C in 5% CO2 atmosphere or per appropriate conditions.
- Once a pure culture has been verified, create duplicate frozen stocks of the isolate in cryovials with Tryptose Soy Broth media (TSB) and microbeads for adsorption of bacterial cells.
- Use a swab to obtain a heavy inoculum of pure material from the plate and suspend in each vial.
- Invert vials 5 times to mix and coat beads with bacteria.
- For non-fastidious organisms, pipette off excess broth and discard.
- For fastidious organisms leave excess TSB in the vials.
- Store vials at -80*C.
Variations (added per request to study protocol).
- Isolates can be frozen under other conditions, including with 20-50% glycerol in the media, or in media other than TSB.
- Other containers: standard cryovials, 2″ crovials.
- Additional aliquots (>2).
- Agar slants can be made on chocolate agar or other media as needed, for pickup or shipment of isolates.
- Special labeling of the tube (microbial species, sample source, etc.) as allowed in the investigator’s IRB protocol.
