Patent ID: 7584240

Claim:
A hardware system comprising: a sample archive comprising a plurality of sample carriers, each of said plurality of sample carriers configured to support a plurality of discrete sample nodes, wherein each of said plurality of discrete sample nodes is removably attached to one of said plurality of sample carriers at a corresponding attachment point and comprises a sample support medium constructed and operative to contain a discrete biological sample in desiccated form for long-term storage; means for discretely transferring a sample to a desired one of said plurality of discrete sample nodes; a database containing data records associated with ones of said plurality of discrete sample nodes and data records associated with biological analyses; means for receiving a request from a remote client, said request containing information related to performing a selected analysis with selected ones of said plurality of discrete sample nodes; a processor responsive to said means for receiving a request and operative to retrieve selected ones of said data records from said database; a sample retrieval apparatus responsive to said processor and operative to retrieve said selected ones of said plurality of discrete sample nodes; an assay preparation apparatus responsive to said processor and operative to prepare an assay in accordance with said selected analysis; and means for conducting said selected analysis with said selected ones of said plurality of discrete sample nodes and for providing results of said selected analysis to said processor, whereby said plurality of sample carriers are configured to prevent contamination during removal of said selected ones of said plurality of discrete sample nodes.