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We have been tasked with finding a solution to bill dry ice to end user grant funding.  Dry ice is transferred to departments and placed in a bin.  Individual researchers take what they need periodically and historically this was not tracked.  We are looking for a not-too-cumbersome way to know what is taken per PI lab.  Does anyone else track dry ice at this level?

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Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
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Hi Janette,

There are a couple of different units/departments here at Michigan State University that sell dry ice and liquid nitrogen.  The Biochemistry Store here sells dry ice by the pound.  I believe they used to have a clipboard for tracking. The buyer would record their name, PI, pounds of dry ice, and account number to charge.  Another department in our building uses this method for tracking liquid nitrogen.  It is simple, but requires someone to reconcile it at the end of the month, quarter, etc.

Emily Crisovan
Operations Manager, Genomics Core
Research Technology Support Facility
Michigan State University
pankeyem@msu.edu

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Emily Crisovan
Operations Manager
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 16:39
From: Janette Lamb
Subject: Dry Ice Billing

We have been tasked with finding a solution to bill dry ice to end user grant funding.  Dry ice is transferred to departments and placed in a bin.  Individual researchers take what they need periodically and historically this was not tracked.  We are looking for a not-too-cumbersome way to know what is taken per PI lab.  Does anyone else track dry ice at this level?

------------------------------
Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
------------------------------

Hi Janette,

Here at Hopkins we sell dry ice by the pound through our Core Facility (IGC). All purchases/consumption are tracked by digital ordering through our Agilent iLab interface. We also have all customers complete a clipboard pickup log with their information and the amount of pounds they actually pick up when they come to collect the dry ice. With both of these systems, we are able to track what is taken by each lab/customer and bill accordingly.

Let me know if you have any questions at all. Hope this helps a little bit! :)

Sincerely, 
 
Patrick J. Catterson
BioBank Manager
Johns Hopkins BioBank
Blalock 1029
600 N. Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287
Office: 410-955-1384
Cell: 301-787-5905
pcatter1@jhmi.edu
https://grcf.jhmi.edu/johns-hopkins-biobank/

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Patrick Catterson
Johns Hopkins Genomics
Baltimore MD
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 16:39
From: Janette Lamb
Subject: Dry Ice Billing

We have been tasked with finding a solution to bill dry ice to end user grant funding.  Dry ice is transferred to departments and placed in a bin.  Individual researchers take what they need periodically and historically this was not tracked.  We are looking for a not-too-cumbersome way to know what is taken per PI lab.  Does anyone else track dry ice at this level?

------------------------------
Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
------------------------------

Hi Janette, 

We don't provide dry ice at all to departments, rather the University has a preferred vendor that anyone from the University can call for next day delivery, and they pay by an internal code. No PO needed. It cuts out the middleman. I wonder if by you providing dry ice to researchers in the end is enough to cover your labor costs overall to coordinate/distribute/bill?

We do receive products on dry ice and will save it for use as part of distributing products via our Biomedical Research Store. This ice is also useful to some of our cores when needed, and we don't charge them. The BRS also orders the dry ice to make sure they have enough to distribute products sold to customers.

------------------------------
Carrie Schray
Administrative Manager
University of Michigan Medical School Biomedical Research Core Facilities
Ann Arbor MI
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 16:39
From: Janette Lamb
Subject: Dry Ice Billing

We have been tasked with finding a solution to bill dry ice to end user grant funding.  Dry ice is transferred to departments and placed in a bin.  Individual researchers take what they need periodically and historically this was not tracked.  We are looking for a not-too-cumbersome way to know what is taken per PI lab.  Does anyone else track dry ice at this level?

------------------------------
Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
------------------------------

Hi Emily, Patrick and Carrie,

Thank you all for your messages and suggestions. It is so helpful to know what others are doing to make it work. We have considered measuring by weight but that would impact the loading dock with additional pick-ups vs. a departmental pick up for all of their labs.  We'll have a laptop local to the supply so that the amount of dry ice taken can be logged into iLab at the source.  The system that Carrie is using sounds interesting and I will see if something similar is possible since we are just transitioning to a preferred vendor.  I can confirm that we are not covering costs for the administration of the current system for dry ice, or liquid nitrogen. 

I appreciate everyone's suggestions that will inform what we implement. 

Janette

------------------------------
Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-21-2026 10:48
From: Carrie Schray
Subject: Dry Ice Billing

Hi Janette, 

We don't provide dry ice at all to departments, rather the University has a preferred vendor that anyone from the University can call for next day delivery, and they pay by an internal code. No PO needed. It cuts out the middleman. I wonder if by you providing dry ice to researchers in the end is enough to cover your labor costs overall to coordinate/distribute/bill?

We do receive products on dry ice and will save it for use as part of distributing products via our Biomedical Research Store. This ice is also useful to some of our cores when needed, and we don't charge them. The BRS also orders the dry ice to make sure they have enough to distribute products sold to customers.

------------------------------
Carrie Schray
Administrative Manager
University of Michigan Medical School Biomedical Research Core Facilities
Ann Arbor MI

Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 16:39
From: Janette Lamb
Subject: Dry Ice Billing

We have been tasked with finding a solution to bill dry ice to end user grant funding.  Dry ice is transferred to departments and placed in a bin.  Individual researchers take what they need periodically and historically this was not tracked.  We are looking for a not-too-cumbersome way to know what is taken per PI lab.  Does anyone else track dry ice at this level?

------------------------------
Janette Lamb
Institutional Research Cores Program Director
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wisconsin WI
jlamb@mcw.edu
------------------------------