Recently I've been working on making kits for collecting blood samples from participants. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the materials:
[caption id="attachment_274" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Various boxes for shipping the kits. On the bottom shelf are the boxes that ship to the Coriell Institute, for establishing cell lines. I've pre-labeled them with hazard labels to minimize packaging work for the phlebotomist. On top are some boxes from Infekta. Scary name, right? We didn't pick it -- it's a company that specializes in packaging materials for potential biohazards like blood. (Photo by Madeleine Ball, CC-BY-SA)"]
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Sample collection for the PGP is uniquely complicated. Most studies collect from people who are already patients, and they're all visiting a particular clinic -- but we want to collect nationwide. (No, you shouldn't have to fly out to Boston!) Our colleagues at the Feinstein Institute are working together with us, we hope we can create a kit that a network of phlebotomists can use. It has several blood collection tubes, packaging materials, overnight FedEx labels, and instructions for both participants and phlebotomists... there's a lot of moving parts! I've got a fair amount of experience programming computers, but these days it seems I'm programming humans...
Four brave participants in the New York City area have volunteered their time to pilot these with our Feinstein Institute colleagues (who are based in Manhasset, NY). Our fingers are crossed, it's exciting to develop a standard procedure for this!