Specimen Processing

CTL provides laboratory services for processing and cryopreserving both pre-clinical and clinical specimens.

Its scientific team has a wealth of experience in processing whole blood to obtain peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or separate cell populations such as CD4, CD8, natural killer (NK) cells and monocytes.

CTL also has experience in the processing of solid organs such as spleens and lymph nodes to obtain lymphocytes.

From any given blood sample, the company can isolate the PBMC, discard any unwanted cell types, extract the serum for use in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests, and then cryopreserve the remaining PBMC.

CTL’s method for cryo­preservation enables it to freeze cells with excellent recovery and viability rates and without loss of functionality, as tested in antigen-specific enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assays. This technology enables researchers to collect samples from multiple time points and evaluate them within the same assay, thus allowing subjects to serve as their own controls.

At the customer’s request, CTL provides shipping instructions, boxes, media, data loggers and additional materials for shipping specimens. The company serve as a centre for PBMC processing to streamline the blood processing and separation of PBMCs in multi-centre clinical trials.

CTL also trains customers in whole blood collection, proper PBMC processing, freezing and shipping procedures, and the verification of cell recovery and viability processed by each site through a series of quality control (QC) experiments. In this manner, the customer is assured that the optimal recovery and viability rates of the frozen cells are achieved by the process before a single patient is enrolled.