Data providing member | Joined: October 11, 2011
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Online since: July 11, 2013
Last update: January 29, 2025

Tissue and DNA Collection (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

The museum’s genetic resource collections began more than 40 years ago as curator-driven research material. Over time, we realized that dispersed collections are vulnerable to equipment failures and sample mismanagement or loss. Therefore, we began an organized effort to centralize these collections, first within some research departments, and then throughout the museum.
In 2010 NMNH constructed a biorepository, which began receiving collections in 2011. The current capacity is approximately 4.2 million 2 ml cryovials that are housed in 76 ultra-cold mechanical and liquid nitrogen freezers and a small number of refrigerators. All cold storage units are monitored constantly for performance.
NMNH uses a modified version of FreezerPro (Ruro.com) to maintain and track inventory. FreezerPro is connected via an Application Programming Interface (API) to KE EMu, the museum’s catalog system. EMu provides a limited form of the catalog information to allow easier identification of samples. Each vial is assigned a locally unique Biorepository Number by FreezerPro to facilitate a unified system for locating and identifying samples.
The collection includes insects, birds, terrestrial plants, marine and terrestrial invertebrates, algae, fish, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, bacteria and protozoans. Current strengths are in bird, marine and terrestrial mammal, and insect holdings, although significant projects have been initiated that will broaden and deepen the taxonomical representation as well as environments. Human tissues, commercial, and agricultural products are not a part of the collection. A complete inventory of all holdings is underway. The entire collection presently numbers more than 250,000 and could be twice that number. All these materials are available for use in genomic research, toxicology studies and environmental monitoring.

Contacts

Sample Requests
NMNH Biorepository
NMNHBIOREPOSITORY@si.edu
P. O. Box 37012
10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
20013-7012 Washington
United States
Primary Contact
Carol Butler
butlerc@si.edu
P. O. Box 37012
10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
20013-7012 Washington
United States
Primary Contact
Katie Barker
barkerk@si.edu
P. O. Box 37012
10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
20013-7012 Washington
United States

Institution Type

Museum

Collection Type

Tissue, Genetic, Preserved, Products

Collection Coverage

Kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Fungi, Protista
Taxa: N/A

Usage restrictions

Vary with collection item

Access rights

Copyright Smithsonian Institution

Curation details

Primary Purpose: Research
Development Status: Active growth
Preservation methods: Cryopreserved, Frozen
Known to contain types: Yes

McGinley Conservation statuses

Level 6: Identified, integrated, and adequately curated.
Date: 2015-11-20

Institution Codes

Acronym: NMNH
CITES: US 005 (A/P)

Rights

We own them
Back to report listGet JSON

Report for May 2024, created on 2025-02-05

392
searches retrieved data from this resource
711
records from this resource were previewed in the hitlist

Query terms

Query termNumber of records previewedNumber of searches
country=India&kingdom=Metazoa31
country=United States&fullScientificName=Polymastia Bowerbank, 186221
familyName=Boraginaceae551
fullScientificName=Acanthocephala Rudolphi, 180241
fullScientificName=Araneus diadematus Clerck, 1757&kingdom=Animalia51
fullScientificName=Basilepta leechi11
fullScientificName=Botrychium Sw.&kingdom=Plantae41
fullScientificName=Brachypnoea rotundicollis (Schaeffer, 1906)21
fullScientificName=Bruchidius villosus (Fabricius, 1792)101
fullScientificName=Chlamisus Rafinesque, 181521
fullScientificName=Colaspis Fabricius, 180111
fullScientificName=Colaspis brunnea (Fabricius, 1798)11
fullScientificName=Colaspoides chakratongii21
fullScientificName=Colasposoma Laporte de Castelnau, 183321
fullScientificName=Corvus brachyrhynchos11
fullScientificName=Corvus corax21
fullScientificName=Corvus corone11
fullScientificName=Corvus splendens281
fullScientificName=Fannia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830&kingdom=Animalia61
fullScientificName=Gallus gallus (Linnaeus, 1758)11
fullScientificName=Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus11
fullScientificName=Halichondria (Halichondria) panicea (Pallas, 1766)&institution=NMNH, Washington31
fullScientificName=Hatiora salicornioides21
fullScientificName=Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797)&kingdom=Animalia211
fullScientificName=Neohenricia sibbettii21
fullScientificName=Platycorynus Chevrolat, 183621
fullScientificName=Psychidae491
fullScientificName=Sagra Fabricius, 179211
fullScientificName=Sonchus asper21
fullScientificName=Tabanidae&kingdom=Animalia&institution=NMNH, Washington1191
fullScientificName=Tanacetum vulgare L.21
genusName=Dendroleon&familyName=Myrmeleontidae21
sampletype=tissue&fullScientificName=Tabanidae&kingdom=Animalia&institution=NMNH, Washington861
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