Samples are the specimens your lab collected or produced, as opposed to the reagents and supplies you bought. They carry their own details: when they were collected, whether they are a biohazard, and whether they are still frozen.
Samples need the Lab plan. If Add Sample is not in your Add Inventory menu, that is why. See Plans and limits for what else it includes, or what each plan costs.
Two ways to create a sample
- Add Sample creates a brand new, standalone sample.
- Derive sample creates a sample from material already in your inventory, keeping the link back to what it came from.
This article covers the first. If the sample came out of something you already have recorded, use Derive sample on that item instead so the provenance is kept. See Samples: collection, thawing and biohazard.
Open the form
- Click Add Inventory in the top bar, or on the Inventory page.
- Choose Add Sample. The dialog "Add sample" opens.
The fields
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sample name | Yes | How you will find it later. Use whatever identifier your lab actually uses. |
| Quantity | Yes | Must be greater than 0. |
| Unit | Yes | |
| Sample type | No | A free-text description of the kind of material, for example DNA, RNA, or a cell line. |
| Collection date | Yes | When the sample was collected. |
| Storage location | Yes | Where it physically lives. |
| Description | No | Free-text notes about this sample. |
| Biohazard | No | Off by default. |
| Already thawed | No | Off by default. |
Sample type is free text, not a fixed list, so use your lab's own vocabulary. Being consistent about it makes samples much easier to search later.
Collection date
Collection date is required, and it is deliberately not filled in for you. Labsistant will not guess when a specimen was collected: that is a fact about the physical world that only you know. Enter the real date from your records.
Biohazard
Turn this on if the sample is a biohazard. It is a flag on the record so anyone who opens it sees it. It is not a substitute for your institution's biosafety procedures, and Labsistant does not tell you what handling a given material requires.
Already thawed
Samples are assumed frozen unless you say otherwise. Turn Already thawed on if this one is not frozen, and it will show a Thawed label.
Leave it off for a sample going straight into a freezer. You can record the thaw later when it actually happens, which keeps the thaw history accurate. See Samples: collection, thawing and biohazard.
Finish
Click Create sample. You will get a confirmation and the sample appears on the Inventory page.
Adding more than one
This form adds one sample. If you are recording a whole batch, or working from a spreadsheet of collections, use the bulk import instead: open Add Inventory in the top bar and choose Import inventory. You review everything before anything is created. See Import files: CSV, vendor PDFs and shelf photos.