McGill Integrated Core
for Animal Modeling
(MICAM)

Sperm Cryopreservation, without Quality Control

• This service includes the sperm cryopreservation service with a quality control test to verify that the sperm is still alive and motile after thawing from liquid nitrogen. One straw is thawed and tested to verify that the sperm is still motile and alive. This does not give any guarantee about the sperm’s ability to fertilize oocytes. We strongly recommend the control by IVF before eliminating a mouse line from your colony.

Sperm Cryopreservation with Quality Control by IVF (recommended)

• This quality control tests the ability of the sperm to fertilize eggs and verifies our ability to recover a line and generate live animals.
• This service includes sperm cryopreservation, in vitro fertilization (IVF), culture of embryos from 2cell stage to blastocysts and determination of fertilization rate for future recovery.
• This service does not include the price of donor females for IVF since this will vary based on strain choice by the researcher. We will quote you the cost to purchase females for this QC test.

Sperm Cryopreservation with Quality Control to generate pups (P0-P3)

• This quality control test will test the ability of the sperm to fertilize eggs and generate live pups.
• This service includes sperm recovery and in vitro fertilization (IVF) and implantation of 2-cell embryos in 1-3 pseudopregnant females to generate live pups
• This service does not include the price of donor females for IVF

Cryopreservation and Recovery

Sperm Cryopreservation
Protect your precious mouse lines against loss from unforeseen accident, disease or infertility due to aging.

• Requires only 2-3 males, 20-30 samples are stored
• Inexpensive and rapid
• Can use frozen sample for speed expansion or genome editing via CRISPR

Sperm and embryo cryorecovery

• Can recover samples from in house or external sources
• Excellent way to transfer out mouse lines or receive  mouse  lines from other labs

Mutant Mouse Models

CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing

• Total gene KO in one generation with 50 - 100% efficiency
• Point mutations, add tags, or make small deletions (frequency 10-30% in one generation)
• Generate conditional KO alleles (no ES cells, no complicated targeting constructs)
• Targeted knock-ins (GFP, Cre etc)

Chimeric mouse production

• Recover GM mice from modified ES cells (eg.condtionals from consortiums)
• Test pluipotency of iPS cells
• Generate genetically mosaic animals
• Tetraploid complementation

Transgenic mouse production via pronuclear microinjection

• For large gene insertions, choose the traditional method of transgenic mouse production
• Random integration of multiple copies of your transgene resulting in overexpression.

Billing information

Please return the completed form and we will send you back a final quotation for the services. Once you agree with the quotation, we will pass all billing using a PO or FOAPAL number. If you provide a PO please send us a soft copy and the FOAPAL will be processed through MMP (McGill Marketplace).

Sperm Cryopreservation Service and Animal and Request Information
We recommend you to provide 3 males, between 3-8 months old and proven breeders. This procedure is terminal. Sperm quality and success of sperm cryopreservation depend on many factors. We strongly suggest that you follow our protocol on how to prepare the males to optimize results.

To access our service request form, click here.
The Service request form must be sent to micam@mcgill.ca 

MICAM is sponsored by:

• Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute
• Fonds de recherche du Québec
  • Nature et technologies
  • Santé
  • Société et culture 
• Shriners Hospitals for Children
• McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)
• Jewish General Hospital
• The Neuro. Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital