Design, alpha testing, and beta testing of a 3-D printed open-hardware portable cryopreservation device for aquatic species
William M. Childress, Yue Liu, Terrence R. Tiersch
Abstract
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 present work demonstrates a 3-D printed standardizable freezing device that can be used with nitrogen vapor shipping dewars for on-site sperm cryopreservation for aquatic species and be distributed as open-source The SDPCD could hold 22 French straws (0.25-mL or 0.5-mL) and a quick-release ring design could eject straws directly into a canister inside a dewar by pressing a button after freezing. The final prototypes produced cooling rates of 1 to 64 °C/min for 0.25-mL straws, and 3 to 37 °C/min for 0.5-mL straws with material cost of US$3.5 for a single device and US$1,820-2,562 for batch production of 20 replicates. Progressing through design, prototyping, and testing was delineated to help guide development of other open-source devices within cryopreservation user communities.