New sperm storage technique wins award

Mr Mulyoto Pangestu with foil bags capable of storing mouse sperm successfully for up to six months.

Monash PhD student Mr Mulyoto Pangestu has won the Far Eastern Economic Review Magazine's Young Inventors' Award for developing a cheap and convenient way of storing sperm.

Working at the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development, Mr Pangestu has produced baby mice after pioneering an evaporative drying technique to preserve mouse sperm.

The evaporative dried sperm, which was stored for up to six months at room temperature in aluminium foil bags, have now yielded baby mice to the second generation.

The foil bags, which cost about eight cents each, would save thousands of dollars for organisations that now use liquid nitrogen to store frozen sperm.

Mr Pangestu's prize included a Hewlett Packard computer system for himself and $15,000 for the university.

For organisations that use liquid nitrogen storage, Mr Pangestu's alternative method could lead to cost savings in acquiring and maintaining nitrogen tanks and liquid nitrogen. It costs $6000 for one 34-litre tank and $1000 a year to maintain the liquid nitrogen.

"It also opens up the way for couples to store their own genetic material, which would help ensure that the material could not be used without their consent," he said.

"It circumvents all problems of cross-contamination of samples and would eliminate all occupational health, building and safety issues associated with liquid nitrogen."

He said it would also free up floor space normally occupied by nitrogen tanks.

Mr Pangestu said the next steps in his research were to try storing cells using the foil bags, and to replicate the experiment with sperm from other animals such as cows.

Mr Pangestu completed a degree in animal husbandry in Indonesia and won scholarships to Australia to do his masters and PhD.