# Barcode every reagent lot so batch effects can be traced across experiments and labs

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-reagent-lot-ledger/  
OnCo record `idea-tr2-reagent-lot-ledger` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Results can change when a supplier changes a batch of serum, antibody or growth factor. Recording which batch was used in each experiment, in a shared ledger, would let these effects be spotted.

## Summary

Lot-to-lot variation in serum, media supplements, antibodies and enzymes is a recognised but untracked source of irreproducibility. A shared, machine-readable ledger of reagent lots (vendor, catalogue and lot number, hashed) linked to experiments and publications, populated by lab inventory software and vendor APIs, would let batch effects be detected across the community and would let vendors be held accountable for problem lots.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Ledger analysis will identify at least one widely used reagent lot associated with anomalous results across multiple laboratories within two years, and its identification will explain a documented replication failure.
- Rationale: Supply-chain traceability is standard in manufacturing and food safety; research reagents have no equivalent despite comparable stakes.
- Proposed test: Implement lot capture in two inventory tools across twenty labs; link to published experiments; search for lot-associated anomalies.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: engineering

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Preclinical results do not reproduce): Errington et al., Investigating the replicability of preclinical cancer biology (eLife 2021): https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71601

## Connected records

- ideas: [A digital passport for every cell culture: identity, contamination status, passage number](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-cell-line-passport/), [Only use antibodies proven to hit their target with knockout controls](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-antibody-validation-mandate/)
- bottlenecks: [Preclinical results do not reproduce](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/)

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