Sharjah,served from next door.

We do not keep a laboratory in Sharjah. Biopsies are taken at a partner veterinary clinic in the emirate, or at home by a visiting veterinarian with a sealed collection kit, and the sample travels chilled in transport medium to our laboratory in Abu Dhabi, where it is placed in culture on arrival.

The route is short and well practised, given how close Sharjah sits to the rest of the northern Emirates and to Abu Dhabi's road network. Collection, logging and the start of culture happen within the same working day in almost every case.

Once at the bench, the sample is cultured for about three weeks until a stable cell line is established and tested. The line is then split between the Abu Dhabi vault and the Bahrain mirror, about 450 km further on, so that it exists in two cities from the moment it is considered banked.

A banked line supports genetic testing, veterinarian-prescribed regenerative therapy, or cloning later – cats from $65,000, dogs from $85,000. Nothing is decided at the point of banking; the line simply waits.

Clients across the region move between us as their own travel allows. We also serve Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, California, the United States and Japan. Wherever you are collected, the line is cultured once and mirrored in two cities before it is considered banked.