Biomatrica in the News

The company had several exciting news announcements in the first half of 2011.

Biomatrica Secures Strategic Partnership Agreement with In-Q-Tel

In February, Biomatrica and In-Q-Tel (www.iqt.org) entered into a strategic partnership. In-Q-Tel is the independent, strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

More details are available in the link here

Dr James A. Robb joins Biomatrica's Scientific Advisory Board

Biomatrica recently announced the addition of Dr James A. Robb to the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). In this role, Dr Robb will provide guidance to Biomatrica in technologies designed to meet the logistical and infrastructural challenges resulting from the growing global sample collection, shipping, storage and management. Dr Robb brings considerable knowledge, expertise and experience to Biomatrica with over 45 years experience in the field of genetics and pathology. Currently, he serves as a Governor of the College of American Pathologists, as well as an SAIC-Frederick Consulting Pathologist in the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR), National Cancer Institute, NIH. Dr Robb was a member of the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Committee for Genetics, Health and Society Task Force on Oversight of Genetic Tests.

A press release announcement of this appointment is linked here.

Biomatrica and SAIC-Frederick/NCI enters strategic partnership on cancer research

Biomatrica and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced a strategic technology partnership to develop new proprietary formulations for preserving nucleic acids from histological samples used in cancer research.

Details of this agreement are provided in the press release announcement linked here.

Customer Focus

Q & A with Theresa Matheson (tmathies@iupui.edu) – Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

At the recently concluded 2011 ISBER Conference, Biomatrica had an opportunity to sit down with Theresa Matheson to discuss her thoughts on the technology as well as outlook into the future needs of the community.

The full interview is reproduced below.

Biomatrica: What are the DRIVER(S) to your adoption of Biomatrica technologies?

Theresa: One of the big reasons for adoption was to free up freezer space that was occupied with DNA and at the same time being able to have more aliquots of each DNA sample. By taking the DNA out of the freezer we were able to use the space for other sample types such as serum and plasma. This will delay the time when a new freezer needs to be purchased. We pay for the freezer space, and the facility where freezers are located is full. Freezers cost money and budget is limited. We also like the “greenness” of the DNAstable technology.

Saving of shipping costs – we have seen real savings. I would be willing to share this but right now I cannot give a real number without getting onto our network. The DNA no longer has to be shipped on dry ice saving weight and size of packages being sent.

Biomatrica: What BENEFIT(S) has the products provided to your research?

Theresa: We do not do a lot of research, we are primarily a biobank, but we have a poster that describes our quality control process for banked DNA. The DNAStable-preserved DNA was used in the QC experiments and was found to be easy to use. We also compared performance of DNAstable to freezer-stored DNA with PCR. At first, testing was not working at all, and found that did not work for either freezer or DNAstable. We discovered it was the primers that were the source of the problems and once this was determined, we could complete the testing which showed that the product worked equivalent to freezers, which is what we wanted to see. We have not had any complaints from outside investigators to whom we have sent DNA in this form.

Biomatrica: What specific areas would you suggest need to be IMPROVED or addressed?

Theresa: Would be nice if you were able to team up with robotics company for aliquoting and mixing especially to address sample liquid handling at the benchtop. We make four aliquots of each sample resulting in 24 samples per plate of 96 tubes.

Biomatrica: As you look into the FUTURE, where do you see more NEEDS for technologies such as developed by Biomatrica?

Theresa: “An area we could use is with actual tissue pieces. Right now we are either Formalin Fixing or snap freezing, being able to preserve DNA and RNA in tissue would be helpful. The period of preservation would need to be two different time ranges; (1) during the period of transport, and (2) a couple years or more. We are working with groups that range from a few months or a few years where we would need the option to stabilize DNA and RNA. For certain known projects, we would know which one we would need to stabilize, DNA or RNA. For an unknown project, we will need a solution for both.

Recent Publications & Posters on Biomatrica technology

In the first half of 2011, Biomatrica technologies have been described in several peer-reviewed articles, posters, oral talks and application notes listed below:

• Lee, S.B., Clabaugh, K.C., Silva, B., Odigie, K.O., Fourney, R.M., Stevens, J., Carmody, G.R., Coble, M.D., Loreille, O., Scheible, M., Parsons, T.J., Pozder, A., Eisenberg, A.J., Budowle,B., Taha A., Miller, R.W. McGuckian, A.B., Conover-Sikorsky, J., Crouse, C.A. Assessing a novel room temperature DNA storage medium for forensic biological samples. 2011. Forensic Science International – Genetics, in press (doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2011.01.008).


• Kramer, K. J., Myers, B. H., Harrah-Lea, H., Stanton, P. Comparison of room temperature forensic DNA extracts sample preservation methods, 2011. Poster presentation at the 63rd AAFS Meeting, Chicago, IL, Feb 2011.


• Baker, B., Trogdon, C., Lee, S. Analysis of (N-4)bp STR Repeat Slippage on Low-quantity DNA Samples with PCR Boost, 2011. Poster presentation at the 63rd AAFS Meeting, Chicago, IL, Feb 2011.


• DiNaro, E., Trogdon, C., Lee, S.B. Optimizing DNA Storage at Room Temperature: Teflon® vs. Polypropylene Tubes With and Without Polymers. Poster presentation at the 63rd AAFS Meeting, Chicago, IL, Feb 2011.


• Nordstrom, L., Hostetter, G., Wilkinson, S., Muller, R., Muller-Cohn, J., Watanabe, A., Syring, M., McDonough, W., Berens, M. Dry storage of biospecimens for an east asian glioma genome wide association study (GWAS). Oral presentation at the 2011 ISBER Meeting, Arlington, VA. (Also presented as a poster at the 2011 Conference on Biology of Genomes, Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory, New York, NY.


• Wilkinson, S., Stassinopoulos, A., Whitney, S., Shireen, L., Ohgi, S., Muller, R., Muller-Cohn, J., Clement, O. Gene expression and genomic DNA stabilization in whole blood stored at room temperature. Poster Presentation at the 2011 CHI Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference, San Francisco, CA.


• Ghirmai, S., Whitney, S., Wilkinson, S., Stassinopoulos, A., Lutfunnessa, S., Muller, R., Muller-Cohn, J., Ambient temperature stabilization of genomic DNA in saliva. Poster presentation at the 2011 ISBER Meeting, Arlington, VA.