Best courier service for international shipping of cDNA? - I need to ship some cDNA from Denmark to the US. (Jun/17/2009 )

Hello everyone,

I would be very grateful if you could share your experiences with shipping cDNA. I need to send some samples (single stranded) from Denmark to the US. It should be on ice I suppose, but would that be enough? Dry ice?

In particular, if anyone has suggestions for which company to use (or not use!), it would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Mette

We've shipped dry (lyophilized) heteroduplexes of DNA oligos annealed to Morpholino oligos at room temperature internationally with no degradation problems.

We have had the best results with FedEx. Gene Tools manufactures and ships Morpholino antisense oligos worldwide. FedEx quickly moves packages from our location in Oregon to the customs offices in destination countries and FedEx has done a great job of moving shipments through customs offices (though rarely there are delays, but not due to FedEx's part and they help smooth the bumps). We have done a month-long head-to-head comparison of couriers, dividing our shipments into two groups and sending half though another major courier company; not only did FedEx outperform them, but customers complained and asked why we were using a different courier. There is very good customer support available from FedEx for international shipping -- use their expertise, they've given us plenty of useful advice. Good luck!