Donate Specimens

Please contact the Collections Manager, Svetlana Katanova, to discuss donating samples to the AMCC. 

You will have to supply copies of all required collecting permits with the samples, exportation and importation documents if applicable, specimen data in electronic form, and a signed Specimen Transfer Form giving ownership to the Museum.

Tissues accepted for the museum's collections shall meet the following conditions:

  • The specimens are relevant to and consistent with the purposes and activities of the Museum.
  • The Museum can provide for the storage and preservation of the specimens under conditions that ensure their availability and meet with professionally accepted standards for collection preservation.
  • It is intended that specimens shall remain in the collections as long as they retain their physical integrity and their relevance for the purposes of the Museum.
  • All specimens should be associated with data, preferably involving a voucher specimen (generally a specimen housed in a research collection, or, as a last resort, photographs and/or digital images to be annotated and archived by the Museum). Data should be supplied for each individual on a separate line in an electronic spreadsheet. AMCC Data Template E-Sheet
  • All acquisitions, whether obtained through direct collection in the field, gifts, loans, exchanges, or purchases, must be obtained legally and must be accompanied by supporting documentation.
  • Specimens known or suspected to contain disease organisms of potential danger to humans will not be accepted.
    Barcoded sample tubes being scanned for accession in to the AMCC
    Barcodes link accessioned samples to their electronic data and physical position in the liquid nitrogen freezers

 The AMCC has 3 levels of donor control of samples:

  1. Restriction. Validity = 5 years. Restriction means that a donor has the right to restrict both electronic and physical access to his or her samples by the scientific community (i.e. by not having their samples posted on the AMCC online specimen database). This is appropriate for students or researchers actively working on samples they have donated to the AMCC.
  2. Permission. The samples are posted online, and therefore seen by the scientific community and thus may be requested for loan. The Permission option allows the donor a right of veto the loan of his or her samples if he or she deems the loan request to be unreasonable.
  3. Notification. The samples are posted online and can be loaned. The donor does not wish to veto loan requests, but would like to be notified when a loan of his or her tissues is granted.