Sample Collection Protocols by Sample Type

General guidance

Suggested quantities by sample type

A quick reference if you're not yet sure which service you need: for exact requirements, match your target service against the tables above.

Cell

Qty: 1×10⁶ cells
Ship: Dry ice

Fresh frozen tissue

Qty: 10 mg
Ship: Dry ice

FFPE

Qty: ≥4 slides, 5–20 µm, >150 mm²
Ship: Room temp / blue ice

Viral particles

Qty: 5×10⁹
Ship: Dry ice

Stool

Qty: 100 mg
Ship: Dry ice

Swabs

Qty: 2 tubes/sample, 1 swab/tube
Ship: Room temperature

Saliva

Qty: 1 mL
Ship: Dry ice / blue ice

Soil

Qty: 100 mg
Ship: Room temp / blue ice

Water

Qty: 50 mL
Ship: Room temp / blue ice

Plasma / serum

Qty: 10 mL
Ship: Dry ice

Whole blood: fresh (EDTA)

Qty: 2 mL
Ship: Blue ice

Whole blood: frozen (EDTA)

Qty: 4 mL
Ship: Dry ice

Whole blood: PAXgene, frozen

Qty: 2.5 mL
Ship: Dry ice

Whole blood: Tempus RNA tube

Qty: 3 mL
Ship: Dry ice

Bodily fluids: gDNA

Qty: 500 µL
Ship: Blue ice

Bodily fluids: cell-free DNA

Qty: 500–10,000 µL
Ship: Dry ice

Step by step

Sampling protocols by sample type

Detailed collection and preservation steps for the most common sample types. Not sure which applies to you, or working with something not listed? Ask us. We routinely advise on sample prep before a project starts.

Adherent cells

Check cells under the microscope for good growth condition (normal confluence is around 80%).
Remove the culture medium and wash quickly, twice, with pre-cooled PBS buffer.
Place the dish on ice, add pre-cooled PBS, and scrape cells with a clean cell scraper, tilting the dish so buffer flows to one side. Pipette into a pre-cooled centrifuge tube and centrifuge at 500–600 g, then discard the supernatant.
Snap-freeze in liquid nitrogen and store at −80 °C.

Cell suspension

Gently resuspend cells from the culture bottle/dish with a pipette and transfer to a 15 mL centrifuge tube.
Centrifuge at 400–1000 g, 4 °C, for 5–10 minutes. Discard the supernatant.
Wash the pellet twice with pre-cooled PBS, keep on ice, discard the supernatant.
Snap-freeze in liquid nitrogen and store at −80 °C.

Animal tissue

Immediately after isolation, remove connective and adipose tissue not needed for the study. Cut large samples into small pieces (≤0.5 cm per side).
Rinse quickly with pre-cooled saline or PBS, dry with dust-free paper, and place in a 1.5–2 mL centrifuge tube.
Snap-freeze and store at −80 °C. Divide large samples into aliquots.

Plant & fungal tissue

Wash fresh samples immediately with DEPC water and dry with dust-free paper.
Cut into 1–2 cm or 50–100 mg pieces and place in 2, 15 or 50 mL tubes.
Snap-freeze in liquid nitrogen and store at −80 °C.

Bacterial samples

Collect bacterial liquid into a 50 mL centrifuge tube, spin at 3000–5000 g / 10 min at 4 °C to pellet bacteria, and remove as much culture medium as possible.
Wash twice with 5–10 mL sterile water or PBS, transfer to a 1.5–2.0 mL tube, spin at 1500 rpm / 10 min at 4 °C, discard the supernatant and keep the pellet.
Snap-freeze in liquid nitrogen and store at −80 °C.

Whole blood

Collect into a suitable medium (e.g. QIAGEN PAXgene) following the manufacturer's instructions: >500 µL per tube, 2 tubes per sample.
Fresh samples: store and ship refrigerated with a wet/blue ice package.
Frozen samples: ship overnight, frozen, packed with protective bubble padding, dry ice surrounding all sides.
For PAXgene RNA tubes, collect >2.5 mL blood (expected yield ≈ >3 µg RNA).

Plasma

Draw 10 mL total blood into 5 mL EDTA (purple-top) vessels. Mix gently. Whole blood can hold at 4 °C for up to 1 h before processing.
Centrifuge at 1900 g, 4 °C, 10 min with a bucket-type rotor. Carefully aspirate plasma, discarding the final 500 µL near the interface.
Re-centrifuge the plasma at 3000 g, 4 °C, 15 min, avoiding the sediment.
Sub-package into EP tubes and freeze at −80 °C, avoiding repeated freeze/thaw cycles.

Serum

Collect 10 mL blood into a plain serum tube (no anticoagulant).
Let stand 30 min at room temperature, then 3–4 h at 4 °C until clotted.
Aspirate the pale-yellow serum (~4 mL) into a 15 mL tube and centrifuge at 3000 g, 4 °C, 15 min. Transfer the supernatant to a fresh tube.
Freeze at −80 °C within 15 minutes of centrifugation to avoid repeated freeze/thaw.

PBMC

Collect at least 7.5 mL of blood for isolation.
Resuspend PBMCs in RPMI 1640 + 10% FBS, adjusting concentration to 1×10⁶–1×10⁷ cells/mL.
Centrifuge 10–15 min at 350 × g and discard the supernatant.
Snap-freeze the pellet in liquid nitrogen and store at −80 °C. Pellets need at least 10⁶ cells and should ship on dry ice.

FFPE (formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded)

Approximately 80 mg of tissue is needed per sample.
Clean the tissue with PBS or saline, then fully immerse in formaldehyde fixative within 30 minutes of sampling. Seal the container with sealing film.
Fix fresh tissue for no more than 24 h (or per pretreatment kit instructions). FFPE blocks/slides can be shipped at room temperature.

Water body / filter membrane

Sample at least 1–2 L of water (slightly turbid water is fine).
Transport at low temperature throughout.
Select filter membrane pore size according to your research target.
After liquid-nitrogen freezing, place in a sterile, RNase-free tube and ship on dry ice.

Urine

Collect in a 15 or 50 mL tube, spin at 300 g, 4 °C, 10 min, and transfer the supernatant to a clean tube without disturbing the sediment.
Spin again at 3000 g, 4 °C, 15 min to remove cells/fragments. Freeze the supernatant at −80 °C before delivery, avoiding repeated freeze/thaw.

Insects

Use a clean, sterile container or 96-well plate. Rinse briefly with sterile PBS if surface decontamination is needed.
Optionally centrifuge at 300 g, 4 °C, 5 min to remove external debris, then carefully remove insects from any liquid medium.
Snap-freeze in liquid nitrogen or at −80 °C, or preserve in RNAlater® (5–10× preservative-to-sample ratio; 4 °C for 24–48h, then −80 °C for long-term storage).
Avoid repeated freeze/thaw before delivery.

Sample collection protocols, by sample type