The UMB Biobank provides laboratory services to support standardized handling, processing, and banking of biospecimens used in biomedical research. Services are available to investigators across the University of Maryland School of Medicine and collaborating institutions and may be requested as individual activities or as part of an integrated workflow.
Laboratory operations are supported by trained personnel, defined procedures, and instrumentation selected to promote consistency, traceability, and sample integrity.
Laboratory Services
Biospecimen receipt and accessioning
Blood, saliva, swabs and tissue processing
DNA/RNA extraction and banking
Sample aliquoting and labeling
DNA Normalization and plating
Preparation for downstream analysis
Biospecimen Processing
Specimens Supported
- Whole blood
- Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)
- Saliva
- Buccal swabs
- Tissue
- Urine
DNA Extraction & Banking
- Blood, PBMC, saliva, and swab specimens
- Standardized nucleic acid extraction
- Short‑ and long‑term DNA storage
Sample Aliquoting & Plating
- Aliquoting into study-defined volumes
- Concentration normalization
- Plate setup for downstream assays
Instrumentation & Capabilities
Sample Storage
- Automated −80 °C storage system (Hamilton BiOS)
- Freezer Farm
- LN2 Dewars
Liquid Handling & Extraction Systems
- Hamilton Microlab platforms for aliquoting and assay setup
- PerkinElmer chemagic 360 system for DNA/RNA extraction
Data Tracking & Traceability
Specimen Management System
- Centralized inventory management using OpenSpecimen
- Real-time visibility of sample location and status
- Association of specimens with specific study demographic
Chain of Custody & Documentation
- Barcode-based tracking from receipt through distribution
- Documented processing and storage history
- Audit trails supporting compliance and reproducibility