About Us

What is CryoArks?​

We are a UK consortium of biobanks, museums and universities enhancing the diversity, visibility, and availability of zoological samples for conservation and research.

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Vision and Mission

CryoArks’ overall goal is to create the UK’s first national zoological biobank to enable the efficient curation of frozen zoological collections to give researchers and conservation planners access to tissues and cells from animal species that have been collected from wild populations, captive collections, museums and agriculture.
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Partner Institutions

CryoArks’ partner Institutions comprise Cardiff University (School of Biosciences), Nottingham University (School of Veterinary Medicine and Science), Edinburgh University (The Roslin Institute), The Natural History Museum (London), National Museums Scotland (Edinburgh) and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (Edinburgh). As part of this consortium CryoArks collaborates with the existing biobanks of the Frozen Ark Project and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).

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Core Facilities​

CryoArks is expanding the UK’s physical infrastructure for maintaining samples within UK animal biobanks. We are adding new freezers (-80°C) at the National Museums Scotland, providing space for 120,000 samples and by utilising existing capacity (-196°C and -80°C, c150,000 samples) at the Molecular Collections Facility of the Natural History Museum in London. Our team is also managing and providing the informatics for a combined database using the open source software Specify to join existing sample databases and make them aligned and searchable.

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CryoArks Team​

CryoArks is managed by an executive team, supported by three members of staff. The partnership is led by Prof Mike Bruford at Cardiff University.

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