WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, RETAMA
BioCision, a biotech company based in Larkspur, California, that develops temperature-controlling products such as special alloy eppendorf tube racks that protect biological samples during rapid and repeated freezing, is launching a tongue-in-cheek campaign with the serious aim of standardizing laboratory practices to ensure the quality of cell and tissue samples. Things as simple as opening and closing a freezer door can affect samples more severely depending on their placement within the freezer, and must be considered. Gene expression, for example, can be differentially affected by temperature, as thermaolabile genes become activated under different freezing conditions.
Inconsistencies in how samples are handled can thus result in different gene expression signatures, and may explain at least some cases where disease targets identified in a basic biology lab ...
