Post Mortem Banking

POST MORTEM SAMPLES FROM A MEDICAL EXAMINER OR CORONER'S OFFICE

PreventionGenetics will accept post mortem samples for DNA Banking as long as the family understands that often times the quality and quantity of the DNA recovered may be compromised and may not be adequate for certain types of testing in the future. Samples obtained from a Medical Examiner are usually not ideal. They may be over a week old, may not have been stored under ideal temperatures, or may be collected in blood tubes that do not have the appropriate anti-coagulant.

IDEAL SAMPLE TYPES:

Freshly Collected Tissue

~ 2x2 cm (heart, liver, spleen, kidney, or any other lean muscle tissue). Tissue should be placed in a sturdy container and frozen within minutes after collection at -80 degrees C and shipped on dry ice with overnight delivery.

Blood:

Up to 20 mls of blood is preferred, but we will accept any volume over 0.5ml.

Whole blood in EDTA (lavender top) tubes or ACD (yellow top) tubes. While these are the best blood tubes to use, we will accept and attempt to extract DNA from other tubes as a last resort.

While we will accept refrigerated blood samples that are older than one week post collection from a Medical Examiner, a blood sample that was frozen immediately after collection will yield a better quality of DNA.

SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS:

Refrigerated samples need to be packed with frozen ice packs in a cooler. Send Standard Overnight

Frozen samples (blood or tissue) need to be packed with DRY ICE in a cooler. Send Standard Overnight

PreventionGenetics does not have a kit suitable for the shipment of post mortem samples, nor do we cover the cost of shipping post mortem samples. The cost for the family will vary depending on the size of the box (cooler) and the weight of coolant used. We recommend a Styrofoam cooler or hard sided lunch cooler for all shipments. The cooler should also be placed into a sturdy cardboard box for shipment.

Post Mortem samples should not be sent for Saturday arrival.

Please call first to alert us to the shipment at 715-387-0484.