In Cardiff University's Medical Microbiology Department, frozen cell, virus and plasmid samples are labelled using Brady's FreezerBondz labels, which can withstand long-term storage at low temperatures.
"One of our main projects involves looking at how herpes viruses such as Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) manage to evade the immune system and persist in the body following a primary infection," said Dr Carole Rickards, laboratory manager for Infection, Immunity and Biochemistry in the Medical Microbiology Department of Cardiff University.
"One of the ways we study this pathogen is by putting HCMV genes into Adenovirus. Our vast banks of more than 800 cell lines stored in liquid nitrogen, as well as frozen plasmid and virus samples at -20ºC and -70ºC, together form a vital resource for research. We use Brady's FreezerBondz labels, printed using the BBP11 thermal transfer printer, to ensure that the data for each sample remains legible and intact during long-term storage at low temperatures."
Brady's BBP11 thermal transfer printer prints at 300dpi onto a range of label materials.
FreezerBondz labels are legible and durable and can be applied to frozen surfaces including glass and polypropylene stored in liquid nitrogen. Brady's IdentiLab labelling software supports database import and 2D or linear barcoding.
"One of the main benefits for us of Brady FreezerBondz labels is that they stick to already frozen surfaces," said Rickards. "This feature has enabled us to replace old handwritten cryovial labels with new, clearly legible printed information, so safeguarding sample identities in our cell, plasmid and virus banks.
"The BBP11 thermal transfer printer allows us to print multiple copies so that labelling up ten identical samples is no longer a time-consuming and potentially error-prone task. The printed labels have plenty of space to include all the information we need and the clear text means there will be no misinterpretation of data in the future."
Brady is headquartered in Milwaukee, US and employs about 7,000 people at operations in the US, Europe and Asia/Pacific.