Dried blood spot biobanking protocol v1

This protocol presents methods for collection and biobanking of whole blood in the form of a dried blood spot (DBS) from anticoagulated whole blood drawn by standard phlebotomy. Leveraging Capitainer B50 cards, for a shelf stable consistent 50 ul volume DBS, this protocol may be inserted in the beginning of any workflow involving fresh anticoagulated whole blood, such as isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), in which only 75-150 ul may be available to spare. Resulting DBS are held at room temperature until elution for downstream applications enabling a more flexible workflow compared to standard whole blood biobanking methods. Accurate quantification of nucleic acid or other analytes through downstream applications may be achieved by correcting through a dilution factor, considering (i) phlebotomy tube anticoagulant volume and (ii) total volume whole blood drawn. This protocol supplements original work published by Capitainer AB, Uppsala, Sweden.