Cold Chain & Cryogenic Shipping
Packaging, documentation and time-critical shipping of live tissue on cold packs or frozen material on dry ice or in vapour-phase nitrogen.
| Category | Cold Chain & Cryo Logistics |
|---|---|
| Unit | One shipment |
| Lead time | Booked alongside the goods; live tissue is constrained to the supplier's weekly ship day |
| Pricing | By quotation |
| Provenance | Custom RFQ |
| Data current | 2026-09-01 |
Description
Getting living or frozen material to the customer's bench intact, with the paperwork that lets it cross a border. The operational template is fully documented in the industry: MatTek's EpiDerm technical specification states that living tissue ships at 4 C on medium-supplemented agarose gels, every Monday with Thursday available on special request, delivered Tuesday morning by FedEx priority within the US and Tuesday to Thursday internationally depending on location, with a shelf life of up to 4 days at 4 C including transit. That is a twenty-year-old commercial proof that centralised living-tissue manufacture plus cold chain works. Frozen cells ship on dry ice as standard across every cell supplier we broker, and native tissue ships fresh on wet ice or frozen on dry ice at customer election. The genuinely hard parts are not refrigeration but scheduling — live tissue must be ordered against a production calendar and received by a named person on a specific morning — and documentation, since customs, import permits and biological material declarations are where international shipments actually fail. We coordinate this rather than operate our own fleet, and pricing is carrier- and route-dependent.
Why this is hard to buy today
Live tissue arrives on one specific morning with a four-day clock already running, and first-time buyers routinely lose an entire shipment because nobody told them the delivery had to be met in person.
Price evidence
No public price for shipping as a standalone service. The documented service level to match: MatTek ships living tissue at 4 C on medium-supplemented agarose gels every Monday, delivering Tuesday morning via FedEx priority in the US and Tuesday-Thursday internationally, with a 4-day shelf life including transit.
These are supplier list prices we located and recorded, not a quotation from Wetware World. Your price depends on quantity, specification and freight, and is only binding once issued in writing.
What you must specify
A quote cannot be produced without these. Anything you leave open, a supplier will assume — usually expensively.
| # | Parameter |
|---|---|
| 01 | Material state (live at 4 C, frozen on dry ice, cryogenic vapour-phase nitrogen, ambient fixed) |
| 02 | Required arrival date and acceptable delivery window |
| 03 | Destination country, institution and named receiving person |
| 04 | Customs, import permit and biological material declaration requirements |
| 05 | Temperature logging requirement |
| 06 | Maximum acceptable transit time given the material's shelf life |
| 07 | Contingency handling on a missed delivery |
| 08 | Whether the receiving site can accept a Tuesday-morning delivery |
Quality documentation
Typically available with this item. What actually ships is confirmed on the quotation, per supplier.
- Temperature excursion logging where contracted
- Chain-of-custody documentation
- Shipping and customs paperwork
- Receipt confirmation and condition-on-arrival record
Candidate suppliers
Organisations we have identified as capable. Listing does not imply a partnership, an endorsement, or that they have agreed to quote.
| Organisation | Basis for inclusion |
|---|---|
| MatTek (Sartorius) | Ships living, metabolically active 3D human epithelial tissue. EpiDerm technical specification PDF (2025) confirms: standard EPI-200 kit = 24 tissues; 9 mm and 22 mm inserts plus 96-well HTS; shipped at 4 C on medium-supplemented agarose gels; shipment every Monday; Tuesday AM FedEx priority delivery in US; 4-day shelf life including transit. No public price. |
| InSphero | 3D InSight liver, neural and islet microtissues sold as a Ready-to-use Spheroids & Kits line, with published production schedules per model line. No public price. |
| Supplier-arranged carrier (FedEx priority and equivalents) | Named in MatTek's published technical specification as the delivery mechanism for living tissue; carriers are booked by the manufacturer rather than sold separately. |
Sources
doc WW-LG-91414 · rev 2026-09-01 · research use only · prices indicative and not binding until quoted in writing