Collection tubes/bag
1. What tubes are available for collection?
- 10mL K2EDTA Vacutainer Ref. 367525
- 9mL K3EDTA Vacutainer Ref. 455036
- 10mL Lithium heparin Vacutainer Ref. 367526
- 9mL Sodium heparin Vacuette Ref. 455051
- 8.5mL ACD-A Vacutainer Ref. 366645
- 9mL Sodium Citrate Vacuette (3.2%) Ref. 455322
- 10mL Cell-Free DNA BCT Ref. 218997
- 400mL CPD triple set (63ml of CPD solution, 285mmol NA/ 1000ml)
2. Can Research Donors collect in tubes that are not standardly used?
This is normally possible with an additional fee for the use of custom tubes. These can be provided by customers, or Research Donors can purchase them on their behalf and charge the additional cost. In the second instance, customers can request to receive the leftover tubes back with their order or to leave them at Research Donors for future orders.
It is always advisable to contact our technical support team to check if RD can collect in your required tubes.
Orders
1. How much notice is required to receive an order?
For overnight orders, we require 4 working days' notice from the requested delivery date (with the exclusion of Mondays since Research Donors is closed during the weekend). For same day orders, we require 3 working days' notice from the requested delivery date. In both cases, the cut-off time to receive POs is 2pm.
Stock orders are placed with Research Donors twice a week:
- orders received before 5pm on Wednesday have an estimated delivery of the following Tuesday
- orders received before 5pm on Friday have an estimated delivery of the following Thursday
The above schedule will change in the case of bank holidays, so it is advisable to check this in advance with our technical support team to avoid disappointment.
2. Can customers receive an order with a shorter notice?
This will depend on the order demand on the requested delivery date. Providing Research Donors is able to accommodate this, a late notice fee will apply for each donor.
3. Can customers amend orders details?
Any amendment requested after the order is processed with the clinic (normally when the order acknowledgment email is received) will incur an amendment fee.
4. What is the order cancellation policy?
A cancellation fee will apply for each donor on the order for blood collections scheduled within 4 working days (overnight) or 3 working days (same day) from the day of the notification. For leukopaks orders, the fee will apply for each donor if the cancellation is notified within 1 week from the apheresis appointment.
The full value of the order (for blood products and leukopaks) is chargeable for cancellation requests received within 24 hours from the scheduled collection.
5. What information regarding the donors is provided with orders?
Each shipment includes a full product information sheet containing donor information, pre-screening details, virology status, and collection date and time. Each sample is labelled with the donor’s RDN number for recall purposes. The following donor details are also included: age, sex, and ethnicity; height, weight, and BMI; blood group and HLA status; full blood count indices. The CMV status is not included as a standard detail on the product information sheet but it can be added free of charge if clearly requested on the purchase order.
6. Is it possible to know the HLA type for all donors?
Research Donors doesn't send samples from all whole blood donors for HLA typing but they do for all the apheresis donors. If the HLA type information is available, this will be on the product information sheet as standard for the stock products. For fresh products, this is available on request (if available) and it should be specified on the purchase order.
The HLA A2 antigen status is on the product information sheet as standard, however Research Donors does not test all donors, so this could be positive, negative or "not tested”.
Shipping options
1. What are the shipping options for fresh blood products?
- Mainland UK: For fresh overnight blood products, Research Donors offers a pre 10:30am delivery or a pre 9am delivery (not available for Scotland). Same day delivery for blood products is location dependent and the related cost is postcode-specific.
- Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland: For fresh overnight blood products, Research Donors offers a pre 10:30am delivery only for these areas.
It is important to note that, although they aim to honour the expected delivery time, UPS doesn’t guarantee delivery by 10:30am, but only before the end of the working day.
2. At what temperature are samples shipped?
Research Donors ships at ambient, chilled, and frozen temperatures. Stock products are always shipped frozen. Frozen samples are shipped on dry ice, ambient shipments are maintained at 15–25°C using sustainable sheep’s wool insulation and chilled shipments are maintained at 2–10°C using blue ice packs. Temperature loggers are available on request with an additional charge.
3. Is it possible to dispatch a same day order earlier?
Same day orders for blood products are normally picked up from Research Donors in London around 11am. For a maximum of 3 donors per delivery date and an additional fee, customers can request an earlier dispatch (not earlier than 9am).
Same day orders for leukopaks are normally picked up around 1pm and, due to the long time required to collect them, Research Donors doesn’t offer the option of an earlier dispatch for these.
Leukopaks
1. Why are overnight leukopaks shipped with a same day delivery (location dependent)?
Due to their high value and delivery issues in the past, when customer’s location allows it, overnight leukopaks are delivered by a dedicated same day courier the morning after collection (pick up time from Research Donors is around 7-8am). This means that a same day shipping cost might be charged for overnight leukopaks.
2. How many mononuclear cells (MNCs) are in a leukopak?
- Full leukopak (200mL): >10 billion cells
- Half leukopak (100mL): >5 billion cells
- Quarter of leukopak (50mL): >2.5 billion cells
- Tenth of leukopak (volume dependent on cell count): 1 billion cells
- Fraction of leukopak (5-15ml) : 500 million cells (0.5 billion cells)
3. What machine is used and what program setup?
Leukopaks are collected on the Spectra Optia machine following the CMNC protocol.
4. Can apheresis donors be recalled?
Leukapheresis donors can only donate 12 times per year but can donate more than once a month, as long as the time period between the two collections is 4 weeks. However, Research Donors aims to schedule donations from the same donor once a month if required for recall. A recall fee will apply for each donor and, ideally, 2 weeks notice should be given so Research Donors can schedule in donors for the preliminary appointment with 72hrs of the donation date.
5. Can you provide any post-delivery data for fresh leukopaks?
Research Donors does not have any post-delivery data However, they have tested the viability of leukopaks that have been stored for up to 24 hours in the fridge and they are consistently greater than 95%.
Sample processing
1. Is any viral screening performed on the collected samples?
All collected whole blood is tested negative before further processing. Serology testing covers: HIV I & II, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis. PBMCs are batch tested negative for bacteria and Mycoplasma via PCR. Apheresis samples are also tested for HTLV I & II.
2. How long after collection are samples frozen?
PBMCs and isolated cells are frozen within 5 hours of collection. Plasma and serum are frozen within 8 hours.
3. Does Research Donors offer custom isolation protocols for plasma?
Yes, if possible, Research Donors is happy to offer custom solutions based on customers’ needs. It is important to note that the maximum speed the lab centrifuge can reach is 4,700g so they won’t be able to perform higher speeds.
4. Can whole blood be provided frozen?
Whole blood samples are normally not shipped frozen as freezing will promote cell lysis and Research Donors would advise against it. This can be arranged for customers upon request, however, Research Donors is unable to guarantee the status of the blood once defrosted and will not take any responsibility for the quality of the samples.
5. What is the shelf life of fresh blood?
In general, Research Donors advises to store whole blood at 4C for up to 5 days but this is a general recommendation and this may be variable according to each customer’s experimental procedure.
Donations
1. What is the maximum volume of whole blood that can be collected from a single donor?
Providing they have a full volume available, and they have not donated recently, the max volume that can be collected in one session is 490mL.
2. What is the recovery time after a whole blood donation?
If the maximum volume is collected in a single donation, a female donor will need 16 weeks and a male donor will need 12 weeks to fully recover before another appointment.
3. Is it possible to collect whole blood from the same donor in different anticoagulants or match blood products (eg. whole blood and plasma, whole blood and PBMCs)?
This is certainly possible as long as the total volume collected from the same donor to isolate all the by-products doesn’t exceed 490mL.
4. Do donors fast before their appointment?
Donors are not expected to fast before a donation. If a customer requires fasted donors, this can be accommodated with an additional fee (Research Donors will need to know if donors are allowed to have water at least).
5. How often can blood donors be recalled?
This will depend on the volume required by the customer and the volume that donor can still donate before reaching the max 490mL. Customers can request multiple donations from the same donor, but it is advisable to leave at least 2 weeks between appointments to decrease the risk of failed Hb testing on the day.
6. Are donors reimbursed for attending their appointments?
Yes, donors are reimbursed for their time and inconvenience.
Eligibility requirements & specifications
1. Can customers request donors with specific details such as demographics?
Yes, customers can request specific details for an additional fee per donor. These requirements include age, blood group, HLA type, BMI, ethnicity, and smoking status.
2. Can customers request donors that have not consumed alcohol for a certain period before donation?
To be eligible for donation, donors should not consume alcohol 24 hours before their appointment. Customers can extend this period for an additional fee per donor.
3. Is it possible to collect from pregnant donors?
Pregnant donors are not eligible for donation. The same applies to donors that have delivered or terminated a pregnancy in the last 6 months.
4. Are donors allowed to take medications before their appointment?
Donors should not take/apply any prescription, over-the-counter medications or medicated creams (e.g. paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen, antibiotics, antihistamines, steroidal-based creams) within 7 days of their appointment. Contraceptive medications are the exception, but customers can request that these medications are excluded as well with an additional fee per donor.
Stock products
1. Is it possible to receive a smaller volume/few vials for screening purposes and then purchase a bigger volume/more vials from suitable donors?
Yes, this is possible. Customers can place 2 reservations on the inventory webpage at the same time and request to extend the second one for up to a month while screening the first batch of samples from the first reservation. Once the suitable donors are identified, customers can contact us to confirm what samples they would like to purchase from the second reservation.
2. What is the expiry date for stock products?
Stock products don’t have an assigned expiry date. However, Research Donors keeps samples in stock for up to 36 months before discarding them, so customers can follow the same rule by referring to the date of creation on the product information sheet.
3. Are isolated cells tested for specific markers?
Research Donors only checks purity and viability of each batch by flow cytometry, but they do not check any other markers or expression. For example, for NK cells, they look at the expression of CD56 to determine how many cells in each isolated batch are actually NK cells and are CD56 positive. However, they are unable to provide any other detail about the expression of any other markers within a batch as they are not tested for these.
Ethics & consent
1. Are collected samples consented?
Yes, each donor provides specific consent at every donation.
2. Does Research Donors have an HTA license?
Yes, all samples collected by Research Donors are ethically approved under the Health Research Authority (HRA) and registered as a Research Tissue Bank (RTB). Generic ethical approval is obtained for all samples intended for biomedical research.
3. Are samples consented for sequencing?
Yes, all samples can be used for DNA analysis and/or DNA extraction and/or any other form of genetic analysis.
4. Do donors fill in any other document additionally to the consent form? Can the completed forms be shared with customers?
Donors fill in a pre-screening questionnaire before each donation. Customer can obtain the anonymised, completed forms for an additional fee.
5. Can customers publish the results of their research using samples provided by Research Donors?
Yes, all intellectual property arising from research conducted using these biospecimens belongs to customers. Donors provide consent that waives any claim to discoveries arising from the use of their samples, having the reassurance that samples are anonymised and it is not possible for them to be identified based on the published data.