Monterotondo laboratory course on cryopreservation of mouse germplasm (2013)

From 21 to 25 October 2013 the CNR Monterotondo and The Jackson Laboratory offer a comprehensive course on cryopreservation of mouse embryos, sperm and ovaries. The course is financially supported by the EC FP7 Capacities Specific Program through the INFRAFRONTIER-I3 project.

The course is offered to teach methods in cryopreservation for banking of various strains of mice used in research, including inbred, transgenic and knock-out strains. Several methods of crypreservation are now available and because no single method is adequate for all the various strains of mice being developed, a variety of methods are taught. The course is designed primarily as a hands-on laboratory program in which participants learn techniques for the cryopreservation of cleavage stage embryos, spermatozoa and ovaries.

Techniques include:

• Embryo two step equilibrium freezing in plastic straws.
• Embry non-equilibrium ultra-rapid cooling or vitrification in straws.
• Sperm freezing and recovery of frozen sperm by in vitro fertilization.

In addition, general principles of cryobiology, development of inventory databases for individual programs, and adaptation of long-term storage systems and crygenic equipment for different situations will be presented and discussed.