OneDukeBio SSCRS-ODIN New Long-Term Sample Storage Model

Dear colleagues,

I’m writing to share news about some steps that Duke’s Substrate Services Core and Research Support (SSCRS) is taking to help ensure fiscal stability and operational sustainability.

Growth in research activity across the investigators we serve has put a strain on available storage capacity and required us to identify a more sustainable approach to sample storage.

Beginning July 1, SSCRS adopted a new storage model. We will continue to provide expert biospecimen processing services while making the following changes:

• Effective July 1, 2026, SSCRS no longer provides long-term storage for newly processed biospecimens. Following processing, samples requiring long-term storage will transition to the OneDukeBio Integrated Biospecimen Network (ODIN), Duke’s managed enterprise biobanking infrastructure.
• Beginning in FY27, all legacy samples that are five or more years from their original processing date will transition to ODIN for long-term storage. This transition will occur in phases during Q2 and Q3 of FY27 to ensure an orderly migration with minimal disruption to investigators.
• Going forward, as stored samples reach the five-year mark, they will transition into ODIN under the same managed storage model.
• Storage will be provided on a fee-for-service basis at $0.03 per vial per month—roughly half the industry-standard cost.
• There will be no charge for withdrawing the first 162 samples in a request from ODIN, and it will cost just $0.10 per vial thereafter. This retrieval model also remains below the rates charged by many comparable biobanks.

As part of this transition, storage costs have been removed from SSCRS biospecimen processing services. This allows investigators to pay only for the services they use while helping minimize the financial impact of the new long-term storage model.

We’re confident that this approach will better support Duke investigators by preserving valuable processing capacity within SSCRS, aligning storage costs with actual utilization, and creating a structured lifecycle management plan for aging biospecimen inventories while leveraging Duke’s enterprise biobanking infrastructure.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. We will communicate directly with investigators whose legacy collections are scheduled to transition during Q2 and Q3 of FY27 to coordinate the migration process and ensure a smooth transition.

Best,