A Tissue Acquisition Number (TAN) is assigned once to each tissue sample when Lonza receives it. It uniquely identifies the original tissue and, therefore, the donor.
A lot/batch number is assigned to each individual production of a final, prepared product. One TAN can be associated with one or multiple lot/batch numbers, depending on how the tissue is processed.
Common scenarios include:
Single tissue, single product:
If one cell type is isolated from one tissue sample and processed in a single production run, there will be one TAN and one lot/batch number.
Single tissue, multiple cell types:
If multiple cell types (e.g., melanocytes, keratinocytes, and fibroblasts) are isolated from the same tissue, there will be one TAN (same donor) but multiple lot/batch numbers, one for each final product. Matching products from the same donor is done using the shared TAN.
Single tissue, multiple productions over time:
If cells are cryopreserved at an early passage and later expanded at different times to produce final products, there will be one TAN but multiple lot/batch numbers, each representing a separate production.
Large tissue split into parts:
If a large tissue sample is divided and each portion is processed separately, there will still be one original TAN, but multiple lot/batch numbers. In these cases, the TAN may include a suffix (e.g., 12345, 12345-1, 12345-2), indicating all products originated from the same donor.
In summary: