Speed cryopreservation service

The easy, cost-effective, and reliable colony management solution

Speed Cryo utilizes numerous innovations for cryogenically preserving mouse strains in a quick and economical fashion that permits rapid recovery upon request.

Service overview

This service utilizes in vitro fertilization to create embryos using superovulated donor females supplied by The Jackson Laboratory. You must provide 3 carrier male mice to serve as sperm donors for each strain to be cryopreserved. Our technicians will harvest at least 250 embryos at the 2-cell stage per strain. The embryos will be divided into 10 straws with a minimum of 25 embryos per straw and cryopreserved.

Our Speed Cryo Service is now available for strains on C57BL/6, FVB/N, DBA/2, BALB/cBy, or NOD/ShiLt background. The embryos preserved are heterozygous (if homozygote males are supplied) or heterozygous and wild type (if heterozygote males are supplied).

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Quality control

The Speed Cryo service relies upon systematic checks of the embryo production and cryopreservation processes to ensure overall quality. We have checks on the in vitro fertilization process by generating control embryos that are used to validate the media and environmental conditions. We have checks on the cryopreservation process that use test thaws of control embryos. Numerous other quality checks are in place throughout the process.

In addition, for our newly offered JAX® Mice background strains (FVB/NJ, DBA/2J, BALB/cByJ, and NOD/ShiLtJ), we will thaw one straw of embryos and produce a live-born animal. The price for this procedure ($500) is included in the package prices listed below.

Our storage procedures are also designed with extensive quality control features. Your embryos will be stored in 3 different tanks: 2 in Bar Harbor, ME and one in an off-site location. Each tank has a continuously monitored alarm system, and tanks are regularly visually inspected.

An annual report will be provided each year detailing the number of straws and balance of storage time remaining on the contract. At the end of the five-year storage period, the following options are available:

  • Elect to fund additional storage for additional cost.
  • Provide written instructions to have the embryos destroyed.
  • Permit The Jackson Laboratory to continue to maintain the embryos at no cost, with the condition we would be authorized to distribute embryos for research use.

Pricing

JAX® Mice Strain Price # of Embryos Stored
C57BL/6J $3,250 250
FVB/NJ $4,350 315
DBA/2J $4,350 315
NOD/ShiLtJ $4,350 270
BALB/cByJ $4,500 315

Prices include 5 years of storage. Prices for all strains except C57BL/6J include a QC to live-born procedure.

Still have questions?

Related services

At The Jackson Laboratory we continue to pioneer the application of assisted reproductive technologies to advance research and improve colony management.

Speed Expansion - Expanding colonies to meet increases in demand or to establish dedicated supply colonies is expensive and time-consuming. JAX® Services utilizes assisted reproductive services such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) to rapidly expand colonies—saving time and money over building colonies through traditional methods. Learn more about our Speed Expansion Service.

Custom Cryo - Our Custom Cryo Service can cryogenically preserve both homozygous and hemi/heterozygous mice. The cost of this service and the length of time it will take to complete is dependant upon mouse background strain, fertility rate of the strain, and recovery rate of cryopreserved material.

Strain Rescue - Are you having breeding problems with a specific mouse strain? Are there health or other issues that threaten the extinction of your mouse strain? Our Strain Rescue Service has been designed to help with these problems.

Breeding Services - This service offers investigators direct access to The Jackson Laboratory's expertise in the maintenance, breeding, and supplying of genetically defined and modified mice. It also provides a cost-effective alternative to on-site breeding. We can expand, maintain, and ship your strain according to your specifications. Learn more about Breeding Services.

Sponsored Strain Distribution - The Jackson Laboratory now offers a convenient way for investigators to distribute their novel mouse strains to the worldwide research community. Through our Sponsored Strain Distribution program, donating investigators pay a low up-front cost to cover the cost of importation, cryopreservation, curation and distribution of their strain. Each donated strain will be cryopreserved and recovered (for quality assurance), assigned a stock number and proper genetic nomenclature, and made available for sale to the public through JAX® Mice literature and our web site.