Catalyzer is being used in a
$75M clinical trial
funded by NIAID and NIDDK.
The consortium consists of five funded centers in
Canada, the United States, and Europe. Several of these
centers have collaborating sites. The consortium needed
a sample-tracking system to keep track of all the
samples (70 per participant, 128 estimated participants)
from all the sites, as they are acquired, sent
to one of four labs for analysis, and then forwarded to
the tissue biobank at NIDDK.
Laboratories in a dozen hospitals across six countries
are collecting blood samples to monitor the
effectiveness of a diabetes treatment. The work offers
the possibility of an effective treatment without the
need for ongoing disease maintenance.
Sample collection happens at several different sites,
specimens are then shipped globally for analyses
specific to the receiving site. Patient confidentiality
rules of several countries must be honored. Patients are
monitored for several years, with some specimens being
collected at time intervals as small as one minute. Data
collection protocols are rigorously specified. Large
numbers of samples must be collected and labeled for
tracking in a very short time. Labels must survive a
range of handling conditions including long term storage
at -70C with freeze-thaw cycles.
