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 make knock-out and transgenic mice.

A major advancement in cryopreservation

Figure 1. Fertilization rates of cryopreserved mouse sperm.

As a result of major scientific advancements at The Jackson Laboratory, we are now offering a significantly more cost-effective way to cryopreserve and recover your mouse strains. Until now, available sperm cryopreservation methods have resulted in poor fertilization rates for the most commonly used genetic backgrounds, including C57BL/6 and FVB, and have proven uneconomical for the recovery of live mice. We are pleased to announce that in vitro fertilization (IVF) rates of 50% or greater are now typical for sperm from C57BL/6 and FVB mice cryopreserved through this service.

Service overview

This service is available for strains on C57BL/6, FVB, DBA/2 or C3H/HeJ backgrounds, hybrid mixes of these backgrounds, or 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. A minimum of 16 straws of sperm will be inventoried for each strain. Straws will be stored in liquid nitrogen in three separate tanks in two locations. We recommend researchers utilize our optional service to attempt recovery of live born mice, especially if your strain has any known or suspected fertility problems.

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)

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 SPF live mice

Pricing

Cryopreservation

Sperm cryopreservation costs $1,800 per strain (for most strain backgrounds) and includes QC from frozen sperm to two-cell embryos and 3 years of storage. Additional years of storage can be purchased. 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 (4 week old pups) are typically available within 9 to 12 weeks of your recovery order.

This new service is being made available to further our mission of supporting mouse-based research in the broader scientific community.

Still have questions?

* Sperm cryopreservation is based upon patent pending technology.