This is a service contract to provide storage, monitoring, and distribution of serum samples for two NICHD-funded research contract studies. One of these studies, the Diabetes in Early Pregnancy Study (DIEP), is a prospective pregnancy study of diabetic and normal control women. Over the course of the pregnancy multiple blood specimens were collected from each mother at each of five primary data collection centers. During the study all five centers shipped their blood samples to the National Institutes of Health for temporary storage at -20 degrees C. The other research study is entitled: """"""""Successive Small-for-Gestational Age Birth: A Longitudinal Study of Fetal Growth and Perinatal Outcome"""""""". This study is ongoing with blood samples obtained at 17, 25, 32, and 36 weeks of pregnancy and also at delivery. These serum samples will be flown from the data collection centers packed in dry ice to the storage and distribution center funded by this contract. Periodic evaluation of selected samples will be scheduled to guarantee the integrity of this resource material. This service contract has provisions for long-term storage of these serum samples at -70 degrees C, for back-up in case of power failure, and for special handling of specimens to prevent thawing during processing. Also, the location of specimens will be systematically logged-in for storage in freezers and tracked during any subsequent processing to ensure that easy access and retrieval will be possible.
