Day 13...

Sunday, November 27, 2016: At the conclusion of each day, the blood samples that have been collected need to be processed so that they are ready for shipment to our laboratories in Brownsville, Texas. Basically, this entails transferring the blood from its collection vacutainer into a storage tube which can take anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on the number of samples collected on any given day.

Every element of our data collection is important, but probably one of the most important elements is tube labeling. While this may not seem a difficult task, if vacutainers and sample storage tubes are incorrectly labelled then all the ensuing work that is to be done in the laboratory will be moot.

Multitasking! Dr. Sandy ji & Dr. Sarah ji checking pedigree records and getting ready to label sample storage tubes.

During "lull" periods Dr. Sandy ji and Dr. Sarah ji never miss an opportunity to label sample storage tubes.

Before blood processing begins other preparation work needs to be completed.

Dr. Matt ji preparing a 10% bleach solution.

Dr. Matt ji 'suiting' up.

Ready to go to town!

Sorting the labeled storage tubes...

...making sure the numbers are in sequential order.

Removing the first batch of vacutainers from the fridge.

Ordering the vacutainers as per the storage tube order.

...and away we go!

Still going...

Phew! Batch 1, sample 1 is done!

First batch of vacutainers processed...

...and now safely stored in liquid nitrogen.

Fast forward approximately 90 minutes...

Second batch of vacutainers processed.

Cholesterol levels, measured in  the serum, are reported back to the participants.

Serum samples ready for liquid nitrogen storage.

Blood clots ready for liquid nitrogen storage.

By the time all the blood processing is completed, Dr. Matt ji's short walk back to Jiri's Hotel Zurich View generally looks something like this...