Gentris, a provider of pharmacogenomics and biorepository solutions, will begin a collaborative study with a major pharmaceutical company to test the long-term stability of DNA in whole blood samples that have been stored for five and 10 years.

The three phase collaboration aims to investigate the effects of multiple freeze-thaw cycles on DNA from whole blood, both fresh and archived. In order to evaluate these effects, DNA will be extracted from archived whole blood samples after several freeze-thaw cycles and will undergo quantitative genotyping for specific genetic variations. Variants were chosen to evaluate both large and small deletions to assess DNA integrity.

The results will be compared to genotyping data from the same samples before long-term storage and to similarly treated, freshly collected blood samples. A pharmaceutical partner will provide archived samples and the associated data. Gentris will provide freshly collected samples and perform the genotyping analysis.

With this data, Gentris will be able to determine whether archived samples would be best stored as whole blood or extracted DNA to ensure sufficient sample quality for future analysis. Maintaining high-quality samples allows pharmaceutical companies to utilize these biospecimens as needed during the entire drug development process, which typically takes several years to complete.

"Because technologies are improving rapidly and the drug development process is lengthy, pharmaceutical companies can gain significant value from reanalyzing samples in order to refine later phases of clinical trials or answer questions that arise during development,” said Eric Hall, vice president of clinical operations and biorepository services, Gentris. “Proper handling and storage of samples is the foundation for driving innovation in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine."