This article was originally published on May 11.
Biomatrica announced today the launch of a partner program to advance its technologies for room-temperature storage and management of nucleic acids.
The program, called Biomatrica Connect, seeks partners within industry and academia to develop, test, validate, and use its technologies for long-term storage, archival, shipping, and management of biological samples, Biomatrica said.
In addition, the San Diego-based company named Biostorage Technologies, Eastern Washington University, Matrical Biosciences, and Nexus Biosystems as initial partners under the program.
Biomatrica's stabilization technology enables storage of samples outside cold environments while preserving sample integrity, thus reducing costs and reliance on maintaining cold conditions during shipment and storage, the company said.
The company's core technology uses a phenomenon called anhydrobiosis as part of a synthetic, chemistry-based stabilization technology that forms a thermostable barrier around a sample to provide protection against degradation and loss of biological activity, effectively "shrink-wrapping" the sample until ready to use, according to Biomatrica's website.
Aqueous samples are applied directly to the matrix and air dried at room temperature prior to storage, which forms the so-called SampleMatrix barrier. Samples are recovered by rehydration and are ready for immediate use, Biomatrica said.
The company incorporates this core stabilization technology in several product lines, including DNAstable and DNAgard for genomic and plasmid DNA; RNAstable for RNA; and CloneStable for bacterial DNA.
Biomatrica also sells SampleWare software, a laboratory-management database designed for managing the storage and organization of samples; and offers custom services to stabilize other sample types, such as proteins.
In a statement, Biomatrica CEO Judy Muller-Cohn said that the partnership program "reflects the growth of our technology and the collaborative approach to making this a highly adopted platform."
Partner Biostorage Technologies, headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., offers its clients the option to use Biomatrica's dry storage technology and provide conversion and sample isolation services to transition samples from frozen to room temperature storage. In March, Biomatrica and Biostorage inked a strategic alliance to promote and co-market their biospecimen storage and services.
Meantime, Kevin Oldenburg, president of lab product specialist Matrical Biosciences, said in a statement that the partnership with Biomatrica "offers a sustainable and practical solution for biobanks that need a cost-effective, energy-efficient, and highly sustainable biospecimen storage and management system."
John Lillig, president and CEO of Nexus Biosystems, said in a statement that Nexus' family of Universal Stores products provide customers with user-configurable solutions for automated biological and chemical sample storage and retrieval in the range of -20°C and -80°C and, in combination with Biomatrica's room-temperature storage stabilization reagents, "offers a robust, high-integrity sample management platform for biomedical and biorepository researchers."
Biomatrica did not disclose whether additional academic or industrial entities have joined its partner program.