Aquaculture 2022

February 28 - March 4, 2022

San Diego, California

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR PRESERVATION OF AQUATIC EMBRYOS AND LARVAE: A NEW PARADIGM IN CONSERVATION AND AQUACULTURE BIOTECHNOLOGIES

 Kanav Khosla, Kieran Smith, Joseph Kangas, Amey Josh, Guebum Han, Michael McAlpine, Suhasa Kodandaramiah, John Bischof

111 Church St SE, Minneapolis MN 55455, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

khosl004@umn.edu

 



 The development of r eliable methods for cryopreservation of fish gametes and embryos will be highly impactful for aquaculture, fisheries research, and biodiversity preservation. However, success has been elusive for  aquatic and other yolk- laden embryos  due to their large size  (mm scale) and low permeability to anti-freeze chemicals (cryoprotectants). Our group has developed an ultra-rapid laser warming technology that can re liably rewarm  different  millimeter scale biological systems ( cells, embryos, and larvae) with minimal use of cryoprotectants . Recently, we demonstrated that rapidly cooled (i.e., vitrified) zebrafish embryos, when microinjected with CPA and gold nanoparticles, can be revived with  a millisecond pulsed laser . Since gold nanoparticles are highly efficient plasmonic absorbers,  they  can induce  warming rates exceeding 10 million K /min to overcome dangerous ice formation and revive viability. The rewarmed zebrafish embryos were able to hatch, swim and mature to produce viable offspring. Beyond our success in zebrafish ,  the  laser nanowarming platform has enabled  the  successful cryopreservation of  embryos from other  fish, corals, and shrimp. With improvements in  the  automation of droplet vitrification and storage, large- scale adoption and dissemination of this technology can be made possible. In this talk, we will discuss recent improvements and limitations of  this approach  towards  building a “Cryo-Seed Bank”  for aquatic species.