Cryobanks XXL: Cost-effectiveness of large cryobanks as a prerequisite for automation.

Cryopreservation has now become a very widespread and indispensable procedure, which is already applied in many laboratories and fields of medicine. When we consider this very broadly spread range of applications, we see that they either involve “manageable” quantities of specimens to be stored or high access rates to the samples. The greater the quantity of specimens to be saved and the intended storage period are, the more important the aspect of cost-effectiveness per specimen storage space becomes. The one-time expense of automating a single, cost-effective large system is no doubt easier to justify than a system involving multiple automation of many small systems. In this respect, the economical and effective design of a plant is an indispensable requirement for subsequent automation.