Question: Can Gel beads be stored at temperatures other than -80°C?
Answer: Gel Beads must be stored at -80°C. If Gel Beads are not stored properly, they may start to leak their oligos and may clump/aggregate. We recommend discarding them and using new Gel Beads.
Before use, Gel Beads must be equilibrated to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Do NOT thaw at 4°C. Make sure to vortex the room-temperature Gel Beads before chip loading to prevent Gel Bead clogs.
If sample preparation takes longer than expected, Gel Beads can stay at room temperature for up to 8 hours. If you plan to continue using the thawed Gel Beads the next day, store them overnight at 4°C. If Gel Beads will not be used within 24 hours, put them back at -80°C.
Some institutions recommend setting freezers to -70°C instead of -80°C to save energy. While we have extensively validated and recommend -80°C for storage of gel beads, it is likely to be low risk to store gel beads at -70°C if a -80°C freezer is not available.
Products: Single Cell Gene Expression, Single Cell Immune Profiling, Single Cell ATAC, Chromium Connect, Single Cell Multiome ATAC+GEX, Single Cell CNV, Fixed RNA Profiling Gene Expression