Running a Cord Blood Bank for Decades: Vessel Sizing, Segregation and Storage Records

Most cryogenic stores see samples come and go. A cord blood or stem cell bank does not: units arrive every week, very few ever leave, and each one carries a storage commitment measured in decades. That changes how a bank should plan vessels, nitrogen and paperwork.

Plan for intake multiplied by decades

Capacity is not about this year's volume. It is weekly intake multiplied by the length of the promise. Footprint matters as much as litres, and vessels that share a footprint and racking let a bank add capacity without reorganising the room.

Keep three separate stores

Untested units sit in quarantine until screening clears, and sector accreditation expects them to be physically apart from released inventory. Reference segments and aliquots, used far more often than the units, belong in a third vessel so day to day handling never disturbs the archive.

Store bagged units in vapour phase

Bags are the format most exposed to theoretical transfer through a shared liquid bath, which is why banks overwhelmingly use vapour phase storage below minus 150 degrees.

Keep records that outlast the equipment

A transplant centre requesting a unit years from now will want its full storage history: temperature records, fill logs, alarm events and every transfer between vessels. Equipment is replaced over that horizon. The records must not be.

Read the full guide on Cryolab: Cord blood and stem cell bank storage.