The Positional Cooling Platform Device (PCPD, known as the ‘CryoKit’) is a 3-D printable device that supports reproducible cryopreservation with standardizable temperatures and cooling curves. The CryoKit accommodates French straws (0.25 and 0.5 mL), and cryopreservation vials (0.5 and 2 mL).

Development of germplasm repositories to preserve genetic resources of aquatic species is impeded globally by a lack of standardized, inexpensive, reproducible, and portable cryopreservation technologies. The CryoKit can be used with standard polystyrene containers that hold liquid nitrogen for on-site cryopreservation. The CryoKit and is distributed as open hardware and the 3D files can be downloaded for no cost. Creative Commons license: CC-BY-SA.

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

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