Sample Preparation and Storage 

Minus 80° Freezers 

Kindly donated by a supporter, our minus 80° freezers are used to store the samples for our research studies. The ultra-low temperatures are crucial to preventing degradation, ensuring our samples are viable for long-term research.  

Disease can be found in various mediums including urine, breath and sweat. On a project working with urine, hundreds of samples arrive from our collaborators in 50ml pots. Before samples can be shown to our dogs, our Bio Detection Technicians break down every sample into smaller aliquots, each less than 5ml. 

Vortex Machine 

This is a simple yet powerful tool used to mix liquid samples. It works by rapidly spinning the sample container, creating a vortex-like movement which thoroughly mixes the contents.  

Using the vortex machine before breaking a sample down helps to ensure uniformity across all aliquots, eliminating variability in testing.  

Urinalysis Machine 

Kindly donated by a supporter, this machine helps us understand what is in the urine samples we are asking our dogs to investigate. The Urinalysis machine enables us to check if the samples we use contain any additional constituents such as infection, blood or high sugar levels, which could act as confounders to our research.