In most labs, refrigerator and freezer storage space are commodities as valuable as oceanfront real estate. Naturally, the death of one of these appliances incites nothing less than a panic, because all of those precious samples have to go someplace cold, and quickly. Now researchers can eliminate hours of worry and frustration with just a few minutes' work, using CloneSaver™ 96 cards from Clifton, N.J.-based Whatman Bioscience. Used as either a primary or backup storage system, these cards address some of the major concerns of DNA labs: purity, refrigeration, space, and transport.

Launched in July of this year, the CloneSaver card allows users to store the equivalent of a 96-well plate of purified DNA, bacterial culture, glycerol stock, or resuspended colonies on an index card-sized sheet at room temperature for at least 30 months. Preparation of stabilized DNA from the card is quick and easy. There's no need to...

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