When Freezing Isn’t Freezing Enough – UNM Has New Nitrogen Tanks to Better Preserve World’s Largest Mammal Tissue Collection

In New Mexico, an expanded and better protected biological material repository has opened up at the University of New Mexico’s Division of Genomic Resources thanks to $500,000 from the National Science Foundation. The DGR is home to the world’s largest mammal frozen tissue collection and top 10 largest bird and fish tissue collection in the United States. The frozen tissue collection is now in -190oC nitrogen repository tanks to better protect the collection in case of a power outage, instead of the previous –80oC freezers. What used to be just a 90 minute power outage back-up now allows the collections to remain frozen and protected even up to 20 days without power. The collection represents over 200,000 organisms and U.S. and foreign research institutes often borrow their specimens for research.