The Positional Cooling Platform Device (PCPD, known as the ‘CryoKit’) is a 3-D printable device that supports reproducible cryopreservation with standard cooling rates (5 to 35°C/min). The CryoKit accommodates a variety of cooling containers, including French straws (0.25 and 0.5-mL), and cryopreservation vials (0.2 and 2 mL). Efforts in development of germplasm repositories to preserve genetic resources of aquatic species are impeded globally by a lack of standardized, inexpensive, reproducible, and portable cryopreservation technologies. The CryoKit can be used with a standard Styrofoam container that holds liquid nitrogen for on-site sperm cryopreservation for aquatic species and is distributed as open hardware. Documents of a quick start guide and detailed instructions are provided as user manuals separately to meet the needs of different users. Please click the 'DOCUMENTATION' tab to download user manuals.

 

 

 

Development by the Aquatic Germplasm and Genetic Resources Center (AGGRC) at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. The CryoKit was design by E Hu, Bill Childress, Victoria Byrd, Yue Liu, Terrence Tiersch, and colleagues, in partnership with the International Zebrafish Resource Center (ZIRC) and USDA National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP). This work was funded in part by NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Program (ORIP). This device is part of a multi-year project to develop a series of open hardware to support development of standardized and reproducible tools for the research communities that use aquatic models to study human diseases.

 

 

The details about development of the CryoKit series can be found in the publication: Hu, E., Childress, W. and Tiersch, T.R., 2017. 3-D printing provides a novel approach for standardization and reproducibility of freezing devices. Cryobiology, 76, pp.34-40. The manuscript and testing results for the current CryoKit version (V2.4.6) is in preparation.

 

 

Please visit AGGRC.COM to learn more about our work.