APB
Cryopreservation
Cryopreserving mouse strains offers substantial benefits for researchers and is essential for efficient colony management. It decreases the chances of important research projects facing delays or disruptions due to factors such as disease outbreaks, genetic contamination, or natural disasters. Furthermore, maintaining cryopreserved samples allows researchers to decrease the number of active research colonies, resulting in additional cost savings.
To encourage the cryopreservation of unpublished samples, a 2-year embargo is permitted before they can be included in the APB database. After this period, the embargo will be lifted.
Sperm cryopreservation
APB accepts 5 male mice aged between 10-16 weeks for optimal results. While older mice can be submitted, there may be a decline in sperm concentration and quality.
If low-quality sperm is detected from 2 or more mice, additional mice may be requested for archiving.
The 5 male mice do not need to be sent all at once. Shipping costs are the responsibility of the researcher, and you will only incur one cryopreservation fee per strain (for 5 male donors).
Embryo cryopreservation
A minimum of 6 male mice and 16 female mice, aged 6-8 weeks and of the same genotype, are necessary. If ovulation is not optimal, additional female mice may be needed.
Background female mice can be utilized for embryo cryopreservation.
The depositor is responsible for the shipment the mice and any caging fees for breeders, if applicable.
We recommend cryopreserving 150-250 homozygous embryos or 300-350 heterozygous embryos.
Quality control
All samples submitted to APB will undergo a post-thaw quality control (QC) test, which is part of our cryopreservation services.
Please note that the QC test does not ensure the future recovery of the strain.
For an additional fee, we provide QC fertilisation tests for frozen sperm and embryo samples, which assess the IVF fertilisation rate of the sperm and the development the embryos.
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Genetic background testing of the strain will be conducted as part of our quality control (QC) procedures.
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Storage
We run two laboratories that provide sperm and embryo cryopreservation following industry best practices. The frozen samples will distributed between the Australian Phenomics Facility and Monash University Facility, ensuring duplicate storage at different locations.
Our liquid nitrogen tanks are housed in secure automated facilities equipped with 24/7 monitoring and alarm systems that alert staff to any potential storage issues.