The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to storage of materials and reagents used in biological and chemical processes.
Biologically active materials may be used in a variety of laboratory and analytic contexts. However, in general, such biologically active materials may have a relatively short shelf life if not treated or prepared to enhance their storage characteristics.
For example, various approaches for biological reagent stabilization and storage are known. One such approach includes storing the protein in a liquid format at reduced temperature (e.g., −20° C. to 8° C.). For instance, certain biological reagents may be stored in a 50% glycerol solution maintained at 4° C. or as low as −20° C. Alternatively, certain biological reagents may instead be frozen for storage, such as at or below −20° C. Obviously both of these storage approaches require refrigeration to maintain the biological activity of the reagent for extended time.
In addition, biological reagents may be stored in a lyophilized form, in which the reagent is dried by freezing in a high vacuum. Such lyophilized reagents may be stored at low temperature or at room temperature. However, the processes used to produce the lyophilized product may be complex and time consuming. In particular, certain such processes used to produce lyophilized cakes, films, beads or spheres of biological enzymatic mixtures that may be batch processes, that do not allow for continuous production of the product. In some methods, frozen solutions are dehydrated, requiring a complicated freeze drying method. Further, in such techniques the desired manufacturing tolerances, such as with respect to bead size, may be difficult to obtain or maintain.