Case Study: Brady Helps the World's Largest HIV Research Network Develop More Efficient, More Accurate Lab Labeling Protocols

he Adult Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) is the world's largest HIV research network, with over 140 labs worldwide working on research for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), specifically for the Division of AIDS (DAIDS).

Frontier Science is a non-profit company that provides Laboratory Data Management Software (LDMS) to labs doing government-funded HIV research. To make collaboration between worldwide labs easier, and to ensure accurate and efficient labeling of all laboratory samples, Frontier Science and its collaborators have been working with Brady for three years to develop lab labeling procedures, with the goal of barcoding all lab specimens. They now use a system of Brady labels, printers, and barcode readers that work seamlessly with the LDMS program.

LDMS is a specimen management system with features for sample labeling, logging in samples, freezer management, shipping, and report generation. The ACTG labs track millions of samples, and Frontier Science was looking for ways to build on the LDMS system to make the labeling process more streamlined and consistent. According to Marlene Cooper, Chief of the Laboratory Division at Frontier Science, "When we started reviewing the process with the labs three years ago, we found the whole gambit of labeling including labs struggling with the problems of relabeling frozen tubes."