Mail freeze-dried mouse sperm on postcards

Scientists no longer have to worry about their mouse sperm bottle rupturing during transportation

"When I developed a method of preserving mouse sperm and freeze-dried it on a piece of paper, I thought it should be able to be mailed to postcards, so when the children were born after mailing, I was very impressed," Yamanashi, Japan Said Daiyu Ito, the first author of the university

Ito worked with Teruhiko Wakayama's laboratory, which was the first team to successfully freeze-dry and preserve mammalian sperm.

Therefore, considering these setbacks, the laboratory began to look for a new preservation method-a method that does not damage or does not require much storage space

Through this new preservation method, the sperm of thousands of mice can be stored in a book, which scientists call the "sperm book

Their team wanted to figure out whether the sperm was still effective after being mailed for tens of miles.

Scientists believe that once the "sperm book" and mailing method are perfected, they will have a huge impact on their research fields worldwide

"It is now recognized that genetic resources are an asset for the future of mankind

Daiyu Ito, Sayaka Wakayama, Rina Emura, Masatoshi Ooga, Teruhiko Wakayama.