Boston University Medical Campus
Transgenic Facility

Cryopreservation

The cryopreservation of embryos is becoming increasingly more popular due to a number of advantages it has over maintaining a colony. Some of its advantages are, large financial savings on cage costs, prevention of genetic drift, less time spent on colony maintenance, and a pathogen free backup in the event of contamination.

To begin a cryogenic project at the facility, investigators are requested to provide us 10 male mice of the line to be frozen and between 30-50 females of that line, or other strain desired. The number of females will be determined on an individual basis, dependant on the lines breeding record. The Transgenic core will do breeding to obtain the necessary animals, if mice are not available. This breeding will be an additional charge to the investigator. Following is the timeline for a cryopreservation project.

Embryo Freezing Timeline

      * Each round of cryopreservation takes 1 week. The number of rounds needed for a project will vary depending on breeding performance of the background strain. Feel free to contact us in regards to the animals needed for your specific project.

Responsibilities of the Investigator:
- Provide the Facility with 10 males (preferably homozygote mice)
- If these mice are not provided and the Facility must breed, the investigator is responsible for related charges.
- Animals will be transferred to Transgenic Facility protocol, but will remain under P.I account for cage charges by LASC.

Responsibilities of the Facility:
- Material and labor needed for the cryopreservation of 250 or 500 embryos. (to be specified by the investigator).
- When provided with homozygous males, the Facility will order the females (10 per day) and will pay the cost for housing.
- When it is necessary to breed for freezing, the Facility is available do so at charge to the investigator.