2018 SLAS Americas Sample Management Symposium

GSK is pioneering the use of robotics to deposit, store, and retrieve temperature-sensitive biological assets. Our vision is to be the first pharmaceutical company to automate the tube-level retrieval of biological samples stored at ultra-low temperatures (-80°C, -196°C). This talk will highlight key benefits, share common challenges and provide our progress-to-date. Through experience leveraged from established workflows in the compound management space three key areas of focus will emerge. Secure storage enables centralized sample management and decreases the resource, time and footprint associated with siloed inventory management. Secure storage allows our bench scientists to concentrate on their research and away from fragmented inventory management. Standards and frameworks requires a disciplined approach to the business rules that surround short, medium and long-term sample management. For example, early registration of all biologic samples with unique, eLNB-searchable identifiers while restricting the types of consumables, boxes and labels across our enterprise allows an automation-friendly framework to deposit, bank and replenish critical assets. Lastly, chain of custody will be described as a mechanism to grant permissions, flag restrictions, track sample usage, provide audit trails, and enable trending reports. Practical lessons gained will include a review of cold-storage automation platforms, the process GSK used to reconcile and absorb legacy materials and the change management necessary to ensure enterprise-level adoption. We hope GSK’s structured approach to identify scope, devise an implementation plan and embed key milestones will provide our industry colleagues the opportunity to launch similar sample management workflows for the future.