Track Your Samples

The Samples workspace is where you register, organize, and trace every specimen in your research. Cell lines, tissue sections, microbial cultures, environmental samples: anything you'd want to track in a freezer or against an experiment.

Creating a Sample

Click New Sample to start. You'll first pick a sample type, which determines the form fields you'll fill in. The default new sample captures:

• A name as a human-readable identifier (e.g., "Brain Tissue Section 4A")
• An external ID if your group already uses a tracking number
• A description and freeform tags
• A status (active by default)
• Collection info for when, by whom, the collection method, and the source organism
• Any custom metadata specific to your workflow

Sample types come with their own field sets:

• Cell line samples capture species, strain, BSL level, cell line, tissue type
• Live samples capture health status, health score, growth stage, life stage
• Plate samples are laid out as a well grid (see Plate samples below)

You can extend any sample with arbitrary metadata. Conspecta stores it as structured key/value pairs and indexes the values for search.

Storage and Location

Every sample can be assigned to a location in your Facility workspace. For samples kept in a tracked box (a shelf grid with row/column coordinates), pick the box and the well; the sample's exact position is recorded.

When you view a Facility location, every sample stored there appears in the location profile. Likewise, opening a sample shows its current storage path.

Plate Samples

For multiwell-plate work, create a sample of the Well plate type. The workspace opens a Plate View where you:

• Lay out the plate's well grid (96-well, 384-well, or custom)
• Assign samples or treatments to individual wells
• See the whole plate at a glance with color-coded labels
• Use plate templates so common plate layouts don't need to be rebuilt every time

Organizing Samples

Folders

Group samples into folders by experiment, collection date, sample type, or whatever scheme matches how you work.

Parent Samples

A sample can have a parent sample, which is how aliquots, splits, and dilutions stay connected back to the source. The parent is shown on the sample profile and clickable for the full lineage chain.

Starring

Star a sample to pin it to the top of the workspace. Useful for the few samples you're actively running experiments on.

Bulk Operations

Select multiple samples to:

• Move them to a folder
• Delete them
• Export their metadata to Excel
• Move them to a different project when your work crosses studies; each sample's attached images travel with it (see Moving work between projects)

Views

The Samples workspace offers two views:

• Grid is the default, showing sample cards with name, type, status, and thumbnail when available
• Table shows every sample as a row with sortable, filterable columns, good for bulk review and comparison

Filtering, Sorting, Searching

Use the toolbar to filter by sample type, status, tags, folder, or starred. Sort by name, date created, date modified, or any field you've populated. The search bar matches on name and metadata values.

Linking to Analyses

Samples link to your image-analysis runs, flow analyses, genetics records, figures, and to each other. Open a sample's profile and scroll to Linked analyses to see every analysis run that references it. Linking happens automatically when you drop a sample's ID into an analysis or chart; you can also link manually from the profile.

This is how you go from "here's a sample" to "here's what I learned from it" in two clicks.

Exporting

Export the workspace (or just the selected samples) to Excel. The export includes every field, including custom metadata. Linked analyses, location paths, and parent sample IDs are included as columns.

Next Steps

• Manage reagents and equipment to track what your samples are made from
• Organize spaces to record where samples are physically stored
• Analyze images and Analyze flow cytometry to link analyses back to samples