LIMS in Clinical Trials Sample Management

Author: Shonali Paul

Journal: Journal for Clinical Studies, October 28, 2019

Abstract: Imagine if you will that you have been fortunate enough in your working life that you are able to afford a 2019 Lamborghini Huracan Peformante Spyder that you enjoy making the round trip to your local supermarket at a cool 200 MPH—no need to put that ice cream in the freezer bag as it won’t melt in the 15 seconds it took you to get home. Of course, that kind of performance comes at a cost. Tags, taxes, and title will set you back a dizzying $308,000. Now imagine that you took the car to a major sporting event and parked it among 50,000 cars and forgot where you parked it. As panic sets in, you realize you may well have lost $308,000.

Most of us will never see a Lamborghini Huracan, much less buy one, but many companies in the biotech field pay $300,000 for a few vials of tailor-made mRNA. Now and then, a few mRNA containers fall through the racks in a deep freezer and frost over, causing lab management to have some sleepless nights before deciding to invest in a system to track such items. Of course, tracking expensive materials is a small fraction of the total usefulness LIMS have in the clinical trial world.