Sperm cryopreservation & recovery service

A dramatic new breakthrough in colony management

JAX® Sperm Cryopreservation & Recovery Service* is the first truly reliable and cost-effective sperm cryopreservation and recovery service for the mouse strains most commonly used to create knock-out and transgenic mice. Recently published in PloS One, our new cryopreservation and recovery techniques enable in vitro fertilization (IVF) rates of 50% or greater for sperm from C57BL/6 and FVB mice and rates close to that of fresh sperm for many other strains.

Chart: New sperm cryopreservation methods across inbred mouse strains
Figure 1. Fertilization rates of cryopreserved mouse sperm.
Chart links to larger version

Service overview

This service is available for strains on C57BL/6, FVB, DBA/2 or C3H/HeJ backgrounds, hybrid mixes of these backgrounds, and B6;129 hybrids. Quality control checks include motility of frozen sperm plus an IVF test (to two-cell embryos) to determine the fertilization rate of your strain. Our cryopreservation processes are strictly monitored and multiple redundant systems are in place to safeguard our liquid nitrogen storage tanks. We divide samples among multiple tanks in two geographically separate locations, and all tanks have continuous tank monitoring, auto-fill, and alarm systems. We have yet to encounter a single strain where the JAX® sperm cryorecovery IVF process has failed with sperm which functions in a conventional IVF.

Print-friendly fact sheet (.pdf)

Sperm cryopreservation case study

Read about Dr. Peter Mombaerts' use of our service to cryopreserve and distribute over 100 unique mouse strains.
Case study (.pdf)

Disaster planning and the importance of cryopreservation

Sperm cryopreservation can be an essential component for effective disaster preparedness plans to protect your institutions mouse colonies and associated research programs from unanticipated crises.
Learn more

Advantages

  • Cryopreservation storage tanks
    Dramatically reduces the cost of cryopreserving and recovering mouse strains
  • IVF-based recovery allows you to directly expand a colony to produce large numbers of age-matched mice
  • Requires only two male mice from your colony
  • Inexpensive insurance against catastrophic loss due to disease, fire, flood or breeding accidents
  • Through reliable sperm recovery this service permits the efficient distribution of your strain(s) to other investigators as frozen embryos or specific pathogen-free live mice
  • For strains not under active study, sperm cryopreservation yields a payback of less than half a year and frees up space to perform other research 

Pricing

Cryopreservation

Sperm cryopreservation for most strains is $1,800 and includes QC from frozen sperm to two-cell embryos and an initial three years of storage. Additional years of storage can be purchased for $175 per year. Optional recovery of live born mice (for verification of recoverability) is only $500 per strain and is strongly recommended.

Strain recovery

The cost for a standard recovery attempt from storage is $1,095 (for most strain backgrounds) and typically produces 10 or more pups. Larger numbers of pups can be generated upon request through our Speed Expansion Service. Price will vary depending upon quantity desired, background strain and fertilization rate of the specific strain. Weaned (four week old pups) are typically available within nine to 12 weeks of your recovery order.

Sperm cryopreservation teams can come to you

We can depoy teams of reproductive specialists to your facility to quickly cryopreserve large numbers of strains. This service is ideally suited for institutions or investigators with large rederivation projects or substantial backlogs of strains that need to be cryopreserved. We can routinely cryopreserve 120 strains or more on site in a week. You not only save the cost of shipping the mice to us but also get a lower per strain price due to operational savings we pass on to you!

Still have questions?

* Sperm cryopreservation is based upon patent pending technology.