The Dried Blood Spot (DBS) method is widely used in Newborn Screening assays for early identification of infants with inherited metabolic and other disorders.  Small blood samples are placed on cellulose cards and dried for shipping and storage.  The laboratory punches a small disc from the blood spot and extracts analytes for measurement.  Early identification allows medical and dietary interventions that can prevent or reduce harmful symptoms.  

Recently, improved media and analytical equipment, particularly HPLC-MS/MS, have allowed extension of DBS to drug and metabolite measurements requiring greater precision and reproducibility, such as pharmacokinetics, toxicokinetics and drug metabolism.  The method is also being applied to other body fluids, including urine, synovial fluid and cerebrospinal fluid.  It may allow patients on long-term drug therapy to deposit fingerprick blood samples onto cards and mail them in for laboratory analysis, avoiding clinic visits for routine monitoring.

Benefits include

Reduced sample volume	Conduct studies with juvenile animals and humans
	Fingerstick collection rather than intravenous
	Collect more time points per mouse, using fewer animals and improving data quailty.
Reduce handling	Avoid processing of blood to plasma.
Ambient storage	Ship and store without dry ice and freezers.
Stability & safety	Chemically-impregnated cards inactivate degradative enzymes and microorganisms.

Use fewer animals in Developmental studies.
Use fewer intravenous bleeds and ship less dry ice in Clinical studies.
Do newborn/juvenile studies in both areas.