Bluechiip Limited, which has developed a unique temperature sensing and tracking solution initially for cryogenic sample management in the healthcare and life science industry, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Gentris Corporation. The strategic partnership will be focused on expanding Gentris’ service model to include temperature tracking services.

Gentris, located in North Carolina, provides pharmacogenomics and biorepository support for all phases of clinical studies and genomic biomarker programs. Gentris collaborates with academic and industry leaders to translate innovations in pharmacogenomics into safer, more effective medicines, aimed at accelerated drug discovery and improvement in clinical treatment outcomes.

In addition to signing a strategic partnership agreement, Gentris has also signed up for Bluechiip’s Early Adopter Programme (EAP). This includes purchasing the trial bluechiip solution, thereby assisting with the ongoing validation of the bluechiip system.

Eric Hall, vice president of Gentris’ Biorepository Operations, said: “We believe the bluechiip technology offers bioreposititories and bioresource laboratories significant value via its ability to sense sample level temperature. This capability will allow Gentris to track the temperature of individual samples from time of collection to analysis, which improves our ability to evaluate and control the integrity of client samples. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Bluechiip in the Early Adopter Programme as we expand our biorepository service options.”

L Scott Clark, Gentris’ chief scientific officer, said: “The ability to understand sample-level temperature changes and trends in temperature across sample collections throughout the process chain and specimen lifecycle over time will be extremely valuable. This will lead to enhanced annotation of pre-analytical variables and improved identification of analytical artifacts that may occur due to changes in sample integrity. Prospectively measuring sample temperature will increase our confidence in the quality of samples analysed and improve our understanding of research findings and interpretation of downstream testing, i.e. gene expression and biomarker validation studies. Utilizing the bluechiip technology has the potential to positively impact research and clinical outcomes, not only in biobanking but also in pharmacogenomic trials.”

Lisa Miranda, Bluechiip’s vice president strategy and business development, said: “Bluechiip welcomes and looks forward to working with Gentris as a key strategic business partner. Gentris’ technical and scientific expertise, vision, commitment to driving innovation and support of real-time, evidence-based biobanking practice was a key driver in its selection both as a strategic partner and as an early adopter to further test and validate our technology. As a former Bioresource Core Director, historical biobanker and advocate of evidence-based biobanking practice, I am confident of the value that the bluechiip technology offers to bioresources across all sectors. Previous pilot trials have been positive, comprehensive, robust and extremely promising.”