A Clone Is Not Banked Until Passage Qc and Location Exist

An implementation checklist for iPSC clone banking is a tracking walk, not a buying decision and not an identity assay. A clone is not banked until passage, QC, and location are named on the same entry. Prefer a record a later person can use to find the vial without asking the freezer owner. Reject a flask label treated as a bank.

CRISPR software versus an ELN for iPSC labs still owns the buying split. Gene-editing software for iPSC labs still owns stack criteria and must not be copied here as FAQ wording. Cell-line authentication still owns STR identity. This page only walks the bank fields. ISSCR guidelines treat characterization and responsible handling as research duties. That orientation supports named QC. It does not publish a universal vial-count rule. Do not invent one.

A Clone Is Not Banked Until Passage QC and Location Exist

The search asks how to track iPSC clone banking. The outcome is a banked object: a clone identity linked to a parent line and edit, a passage at freeze, QC evidence attached to that freeze, a vial count, and a location that someone else can walk to. If any of those are missing, the core has a culture, not a bank. A label on a flask can be copied onto the wrong box. A design tool can name a spacer and still not know which rack holds the surviving clone.

Banking is a record job. Authentication is a molecular identity test. They meet on the same clone and they are not substitutes. A beautiful STR report that cannot be attached to a location is a PDF in a drawer. A tidy box map with no passage and no QC is a stash. The walk below closes the bank entry. It does not replace the authentication page.

Walk the Banking Fields

Write the entry when the vials go into the freezer, not when someone later needs a thaw.

1. Name the clone and the parent. Record clone ID, parent line, and the edit or derivation event. Checkpoint: two people independently retrieve the same parent and edit from the ID.
2. Name the passage at freeze. Record the passage number and the date. Checkpoint: a later expansion does not overwrite this freeze’s passage.
3. Attach QC that belongs to this freeze. Link the evidence that the lab requires for release — edit confirmation, karyotype or other genomic check, pluripotency marks, authentication report if one exists. Checkpoint: each file points at this clone ID and date, not at “the project.”
4. Name vial count and location. Record how many vials, which freezer, rack, box, and slot. Checkpoint: a person who was not at the freeze can walk to a vial.
5. Name the withdraw rule. Write who may thaw, what must be recorded on withdraw, and whether a minimum vial count triggers a re-bank. Checkpoint: a midnight thaw still leaves a trail.
6. Close the entry with owner and date. Checkpoint: the bank entry is attributable. A personal notebook page is not a close.

If a checkpoint fails, the clone is not banked. It may still be growing. Growing is not banking. Do not skip location because “everyone knows the iPSC freezer.” Everyone changes.

A worked close helps. Clone C12 comes from parental line P3 after a named edit. Passage at freeze is 18 on 7 September. The entry attaches the Sanger or NGS confirmation for the intended allele, the latest authentication report if one exists, and a karyotype or equivalent genomic check the core requires for release. Eight vials sit in freezer 2, rack B, box 14, slots 1–8. Withdrawal requires writing the date, operator, destination flask, and remaining count back onto C12. If two vials remain, the entry says who must re-expand and re-bank. That paragraph is a bank. “C12, LN2, ask Maria” is not.

Expected Result and Verification

The walk is done when a later person can withdraw a named vial and reconstruct passage and QC without asking the freezer owner. Verification is not a photograph of a box.

• Clone ID, parent, and edit resolve to one object.
• Passage and freeze date are on the entry that owns the vials.
• QC files are attached to that entry, not to a general project folder.
• Location is specific enough to walk to a slot.
• A withdraw event can be written back onto the same entry.

Common failures are a clone nickname reused across two edits, a passage number taken from the parent instead of the freeze, QC left in an email, and a location that says “LN2, left side.” Those failures are how the wrong line is thawed into a paper. If verification cannot be completed, do not call the line banked. Call it stored until the fields exist.

Hold the Fields After They Exist

Hold the fields in a notebook that can keep structured entries, not in a slide. After the fields exist, ZettaNote can store the dated banking record beside other experiment entries. That is a record surface. It is not a LIMS, not an automated freezer, and not a substitute for authentication. ZettaNote does not become the buying subject of the CRISPR-versus-ELN split. Use it after the walk names the objects the record must carry.

If the core still withdraws clones from a flask label, you do not have banking. You have a freezer. Write passage, QC, and location. Then thaw. Then, if the lab still needs to decide which software jobs to buy, leave this page and use the buying-split sibling.

A thaw that cannot write back is a second failure mode. Someone takes two vials of C12 on a weekend, expands them, and never updates the remaining count. Monday’s notebook still says eight vials. The next person thaws a slot that is empty or half-empty and treats that as a QC problem. It is a withdraw-rule problem. Re-banking after a successful expansion is part of the same entry family: new passage, new freeze date, new locations, and a pointer back to the parent bank ID. Do not invent a required vial number. Inventing a count is how a local habit becomes a fake standard. Write the count you actually froze.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which fields close an iPSC bank entry?

Clone identity parent edit passage QC evidence vial count and location. Without those, the clone is stored not banked.

Is a flask label enough to withdraw a clone?

No. Withdrawal needs the bank entry that names passage QC and location. A label can be copied onto the wrong box.