Samples behave differently from reagents and supplies because a specimen has a history. It was collected at a point in time, it may have been frozen and thawed, and it may have produced other samples. Labsistant tracks that chain, in the same inventory as everything else the lab holds.
Samples need the Lab plan.
Collection date
Every sample has a collection date, and it is required. It is never filled in for you, because when a specimen was collected is a fact only your records hold.
It is the anchor for everything else about the sample, so enter the real date rather than the date you happened to type it in.
See Add a sample for creating one.
Frozen and thawed
Every sample is in one of two states, shown as State on its detail panel: Frozen or Thawed.
New samples are frozen unless you turn on Already thawed when creating them.
Thawing a sample
Thawing is not just a switch. It creates a new, named sample from the frozen one, because a thawed working aliquot is a different physical thing from the frozen stock it came out of.
- Open the sample from the Inventory page.
- Under Actions, choose Thaw sample.
- Give the New sample name.
- Decide how much:
- Leave Thaw the entire sample off to thaw part of it. The frozen sample keeps the remainder. Enter the Amount to thaw.
- Turn it on to use the whole frozen sample. It is closed once thawed.
- Choose the Storage location for the thawed sample.
- Optionally add Notes.
- Click Thaw.
Naming the thawed portion is what makes this useful later. "Working aliquot" tells you what it is when you find it in three weeks.
Correcting a thaw
If something was marked thawed by mistake, use Mark as not thawed.
- Open the sample and choose Mark as not thawed.
- Give a reason. It is required.
- Click Re-freeze.
The reason is recorded in the Audit Log.
This is a correction tool, not a refreeze workflow. It is there for the case where a sample was flagged thawed and never actually left the freezer. It does not mean the app is telling you a thawed specimen can be refrozen and reused. That judgment is yours, under your lab's own procedures.
Deriving a child sample
When one sample produces another, a sub-culture, a passage, an aliquot, use Derive sample rather than creating a fresh standalone sample. Deriving records the parent-to-child lineage automatically.
- Open the parent item from the Inventory page.
- Under Actions, choose Derive sample.
- Fill in:
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Child sample name | Yes | |
| Quantity | Yes | Must be greater than 0. |
| Unit | Yes | |
| Sample type | No | |
| Storage location | No | You can leave it with no location, though giving it one is better. |
| Notes | No | Anything worth recording about this derivation. |
- Click Derive sample.
Why it matters: if you create the child as a standalone sample instead, the link to its parent is gone and nothing can reconstruct it. Deriving takes the same amount of effort and keeps the chain.
You can derive from an existing item generally, not only from samples, which is how material you recorded as a reagent can produce a sample.
The biohazard flag
The Biohazard flag marks a sample as a biohazard. It shows as a badge on the record so anyone who opens it sees it, and the inventory can be filtered by it.
It is a label on your record. Labsistant does not classify biohazards, does not know what containment level a given material requires, and does not enforce any handling rule based on the flag. Your institution's biosafety procedures govern all of that.
Tags
Samples can carry tags from a shared vocabulary your lab builds up. On a sample's detail panel, the Tags section lets you add an existing tag or create a new one, and you can rename and delete tags from the same place.
Tags are lab-wide, so renaming one changes it everywhere it is used. That is the point, but it means a rename is a lab-wide decision rather than a personal one.
What else a sample records
A sample's detail panel also shows:
- Sample type, or "Not specified" if you left it blank.
- Metadata, if any has been recorded.
- Box position, when the sample is stored in a grid box. See Grid boxes and numbered slots.
Samples in experiments
A sample can be listed as a required source on an experiment template, including as a variable sample where you pick the specific one at run time.
When you pull from a frozen sample during a running experiment, Labsistant asks what happened to it, offering to keep it frozen, mark the pulled amount thawed, or thaw it into a new separately named aliquot. Answering at that moment is far more accurate than reconstructing it later.