Serum Archive Facility
(Science 3 Building)
The serum archive facility is composed of three rooms, a Freezer facility, a Wet lab, and a computer processing room. It is dedicated to processing and managing biological and biomedical specimens from field research projects. It uses state of the art archival technique for storage, preservation and retrieval of the specimens. Biomedical Anthropology students have played a large role in the development and operation of this facility and it is used as a "training ground" for a large number of our students.
In 2003, Dr. Ralph M. Garruto and the Laboratory of Biomedical Anthropology and Neurosciences was awarded five years of funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to archive a large collection of human sera which was collected over a forty year time span dating back to the early 1950’s by investigators and collaborators of the former Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies. The collection consists of serum samples from populations in the Pacific Islands, Asia and the Middle East collected by various investigators during their field studies. The investigators’ original hand-written field notes and bleeding lists accompanied each collection. Until 2003, the samples were housed at the NIH in long-term -20°C and -80°C ultra low freezers at Cryonix in Rockville, Maryland. The samples were shipped to Dr. Garruto and the Laboratory of Biomedical Anthropology and Neurosciences at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2003 where they were transferred to twelve -20oC freezers provided by the NIH and located in Science III. These freezers, dedicated solely for serum archival sample storage, are in a temperature controlled room and are maintained on emergency power that is monitored 24/7 on a power board by the University’s physical facilities division. Permanent archiving of the serum sample collection takes place in a laboratory constructed specifically for archival purposes located adjacent to and physically connected to the archive freezer room. The main laboratory, along with the freezer room and the computerized database and data archiving room together constitute the NIH-NINDS-LCNSS Serum Archive Laboratory and collection. Access to the NIH-NINDS-LCNSS-BU Serum Archive Laboratory is restricted. The work of archiving serum samples is a long-term multi-step process carefully designed to preserve the integrity and value of the samples for future use by researchers at this and other institutions.
Students who successfully complete a formal training program, often during their first semester, are employed in the archive up to 20 hours a week during the academic year and up to 40 hours a week during semester breaks and in the Summer. Employment in the archive has enhanced students' archival and laboratory skills as well as providing a means of financial support.
Serum Archive Laboratory
Graduate Student Archival Training
Database Management
Graduate Student Archival Employment
