Biological Collections Ensuring Critical Research and Education for the 21st Century (2020) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4 Building and Maintaining a Robust Infrastructure
4 Building and Maintaining a Robust Infrastructure
Pages 85-112
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 85... ...
Such infrastructure can be expensive and time consuming to maintain, but the value that biological collections provide to the scientific research and education communities more than justifies these expenditures. For example, an analysis of biological resource centers that collect, certify, and distribute living organisms demonstrated that these institutions amplify the cumulative impact of individual research discoveries and thereby significantly increase the pace and reduce the cost of research (Furman and Stern, 2011)
|
From page 86... ...
Individual biological collections vary in nature from small, projectbased collections with relatively simple infrastructure needs to large repositories of diverse living, fossil, and preserved specimens and their associated data with complex, sophisticated, and ongoing infrastructure needs. Biological collections can also be thought of as a collective system that is a vital component of the nation's scientific infrastructure.
|
From page 87... ...
but also maintain cleared and stained glycerin specimens and skeletal and tissue collections, all requiring different storage conditions. Even organisms that appear superficially similar, such as different types of microalgae, may require different types of infrastructure to maintain them as biological collections (see Box 4-1)
|
From page 88... ...
Today, many biological collections grow principally as a product of individual research projects or an individual institution's priorities. The potential ramifications of neglecting the nation's biological collections infrastructure are wide-ranging, with severe consequences for innovations in
|
From page 89... ...
Collections Require Ongoing Preventive Conservation Without active and ongoing preventive conservation,2 natural history specimens will degrade over time and become less useful for research and education. Fluid-preserved specimens will eventually dry out if not stored in appropriate containers and resupplied with the appropriate liquids, cryopreserved tissues will decay if freezers are not maintained and kept at desired temperatures, dried collections can fall victim to insects and mold, and fossils are subject to Byne's (Cavallari et al., 2014; Shelton, 2008)
|
From page 90... ...
It discusses planning and assessment, building design and facili ties management, and storage furniture and specimen housing. The Biological Resources of A comprehensive reference on the living Model Microorganisms stock collections of 14 different model Jarrett and McCluskey (2019)
|
From page 91... ...
including potential approaches to national certification. The guidelines resulted from discussions among the OECD member countries, key partner countries, and the scientific community to serve as a target for quality management of living stock collections.
|
From page 92... ...
The United States Culture Collection Network published a survey of rescued living microbial collections, including resources at the E coli Genetic Stock Center, the Fungal Genetics Stock Center, the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, and the Culture Collection of Algae at The University of Texas at Austin, and described some of the scientific discoveries made with the rescued specimens since then (Boundy-Mills et al., 2019)
|
From page 93... ...
First, best practices are neither standardized across the living stock collections community nor updated as new regulations and technologies become available. Second, some living collections, such as those of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and other microbes, contain specimens isolated so long ago that they need to be re-identified using current taxonomy and technologies.
|
From page 94... ...
Cryopreservation using liquid nitrogen tanks is an effective, but costly, approach to ensuring the longer-term viability of many types of cells and tissues. Many living collections opt for mechanical freezers, which are more affordable but result in a reduction in long-term viability.
|
From page 95... ...
tremendous anthropogenic changes now under way, sampling and archiving the baselines of the presence and distribution of organisms will support future scientists in their efforts to understand changes in biodiversity and organisms' responses to global change. Likewise, the expansion of living stock collections, including both new types of genetic stocks and new types of products from existing specimens (e.g., tissues, clone libraries, or purified genomic DNA)
|
From page 96... ...
Those biological collections that include growth in their mandate may vary widely in the degree to which they pursue growth. For example, the ornithology collection of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle has pursued an aggressive policy of growth since its founding in the 1970s and is now, after five decades of sustained growth, one of the premier ornithology collections in the world.
|
From page 97... ...
All research proposals are required to include a data management plan6 to describe how research results, including data from specimen-based work, will be disseminated and shared. However, there is not yet a requirement for a specimen management plan to describe how specimens and their associated data will be curated, digitized, and cared for over the long term for an established biological collection.
|
From page 98... ...
For both natural history and living stock collections, specimens or the associated biological materials are often shipped to users rather than accessed at the collection facility itself, although this may not be possible if a large amount of material is requested or if the specimens are too fragile or bulky to be shipped. Thanks to national or even worldwide networking, some biological collections can facilitate access to samples that are not stored in their own facilities.
|
From page 99... ...
. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a successful example of how a natural history collection might effectively integrate research and educational spaces (see Box 4-5)
|
From page 100... ...
Some viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, protists, or multicellular organisms are pathogenic to humans, animals, or plants. Patho genicity greatly affects the physical infrastructure required by living collections, for reasons of both biosafety (protecting the safety of the operator handling the organism)
|
From page 101... ...
biodiversity information for future study requires redoubled efforts to document and preserve it, which will result in many new collections that will need to be accommodated in the nation's biological collections. New methods of propagating living organisms as well as novel methods for preserving tissues and whole organisms may require changes to the current collections infrastructure as well as new curatorial techniques.
|
From page 102... ...
Photo by Jeff Werner The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is part of The University of British Columbia's Biodiversity Research Centre, which integrates space for its natural history col lection with public displays, laboratories for collections-based researchers and curators, and offices for educators with related meeting and support spaces. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum, which opened in 2010, includes rows of stacking cabinets with windows, offering visitors views of the research collections, in addition to some small exhibitions.
|
From page 103... ...
Emergency Preparedness A disaster preparedness and emergency response plan17 is considered a core document for natural history collections housed in museums and is required for a natural history collection to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Developing a contingency and disaster recovery plan is also recommended for living stock collections (Parsons and Duke, 2013)
|
From page 104... ...
Establish Shared Standards and Technologies for Living Stock Collections One way to improve the value of living collections is to have strict and consistent quality standards in place. Such standards can help ensure that resources and data are "fit for purpose" -- that is, of the type and quality to meet the specific needs of users (Smith et al., 2014)
|
From page 105... ...
living stock collections. Arising from networked European Union (EU)
|
From page 106... ...
Establishing a National Registry of Biological Collections A registry of the biological collections held in U.S. institutions would enable users to discover and contact collections with holdings of potential interest, thereby increasing access to them.
|
From page 107... ...
. WFCC also has a global registry of culture collections.
|
From page 108... ...
Smaller living collections may not be able to afford the staffing and other costs for a quality assurance and quality control system and may not be able to meet the ISO guidelines. Strategic planning will be an important tool in guiding those living stock collections to adopt and maintain nationally accepted quality control standards.
|
From page 109... ...
, which lists ap proximately 1,600 natural history collections in the United States associated with 729 different institutions. This list includes a large variety of collections of different sizes and affiliations but is not complete and particularly underrepre sents small, regional collections and private, personal collections.
|
From page 110... ...
The strategic plans should outline approaches to: • continually address ongoing preventive maintenance and, in the case of living collections, quality control requirements; and • improve and potentially build new infrastructure, both of which actions are particularly important if collections growth is a component of the strategic mission.
|
From page 111... ...
Recommendation 4-3: Professional societies, associations, and coordina tion networks should collaborate and combine efforts aimed at addressing community-level infrastructure needs of the nation's biological collections, including: • develop a platform to pool and share resources such as strategic plans, best practices, and training opportunities so that these can serve as resources for the broader biological collections community; • develop and implement strategies to adopt quality control programs to improve uniformity among living stock collections and ensure the avail ability of high-quality biological resources that best fit the needs of the user; • create a national biological collections registry to document the loca tion, size, and holdings of the collections in the United States. The reg istry should be curated and updatable.
|
From page 112... ...
112 Biological Collections • facilitate the creation and support of an independent consortium to develop collaborative platforms and mechanisms to pool and share resources for strategic planning, preventive maintenance, quality control and assurance, collections growth, establishing a national collections registry, and other community-level assets.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.