Maintaining the Freezers 24/7

Preserving the integrity of our precious samples is a top priority in our tissue bank.  We recognize that if it were not for the generosity of the patients, this great resource would not exist.  To this end, daily checks are performed to ensure that everything is operating smoothly and within acceptable limits.

WRI’s Tissue Bank consists of ten liquid nitrogen freezers and five negative 80 freezers which are continuously monitored by an automated system. If a temperature falls out of range, the system will call staff from a designated call list so the necessary action can be taken.

In addition to the automated system, we also perform manual checks as a backup method.  Every day, two staff members perform AM and PM checks of the tissue bank.  The checklist includes room temperatures, freezer temperatures, nitrogen levels, oxygen levels and verification that freezers are locked.  During non-business hours, security staff walks through the facility and performs the same checks every four hours.

All checklists are double checked at the beginning of every week to look for possible trending patterns.  This process can help to give us a heads up of a possible problem in the future.  One such occasion was when we noticed liquid nitrogen levels rising instead of falling on one of the freezers (this parameter is not recorded on the automated system).  We did some troubleshooting and ended up needing to do a total thaw of the freezer to clear out an obstruction that was leading to the erroneous readings.

Maintaining the tissue bank is a 24 hour 7 day a week job, and every day many steps are taken to ensure the quality and integrity of our samples remain high.