Zoo InternQuest is a career exploration program for high school students. For more information see the Zoo InternQuest Journals. For more photos see the Zoo InternQuest Photo Journal.

A Frozen Zoo? That seemed strange to me. Are there frozen panda bears and alligators lined up in giant freezers? The Frozen Zoo actually is, however, is a bank of frozen sperm, eggs, and body cells from various species. They are in a state of suspended animation, cryogenically preserved. The cells can be carefully thawed out in order to help reproduction and survival of endangered animals. As you can imagine, this can be a tricky process. The cells need to be frozen at just the right temperature, and thawed down at just the right speed so that they still function normally when they are needed. That’s where Nicole Ravida and her coworkers come in. In the Reproductive Physiology division, they conduct studies to improve the efficiency of techniques like in vitro fertilization in endangered species.

One of the things the team does involves a machine called a flow cytometer. This spectacular machine can count the number of cells in a given sample, and tell if they are intact or not. It does this by passing each cell individually through a laser beam. This causes the light to scatter, and the light is then picked up in various places, and the data is collected. By viewing this data, Ms. Ravida and her team can determine how many of the cells are living, and how many are damaged. This is particularly useful when trying to decide if the sperm from the Frozen Zoo are still usable or not. On the tip of the sperm cell is a covering of enzymes. This covering is called the acrosome, and it allows the sperm to break through the egg in order to accomplish fertilization. If the acrosome is damaged, fertilization will not occur. The flow cytometer enables Ms. Ravida to see how many acrosomes in any given sample of sperm are damaged. If a large percentage of them are damaged, then she and her coworkers know that they need to come up with better freezing and thawing methods.

Ms. Ravida’s favorite part of her job is doing procedures with the animals. They perform these procedures, such as thermal imaging, to gain necessary information for their reproductive studies. This technique was first used with the panda to monitor the heat signature on her belly. The reproductive physiologists were attempting to discover if they could predict pregnancy with this non-invasive process. “Honestly, the coolest thing I have been able to do is to just feed and pet a panda when we were collecting a cell swab from Bai Yun.”

When Ms. Ravida first started to look at various fields of biology, she thought that the only thing she could do to work with animals was to be a veterinarian or a zoo keeper. So, she completed her bachelor’s in animal science and then worked for a vet, but came to the conclusion that it wasn’t for her. She also volunteered at the Zoo, and decided that wasn’t for her either. It wasn’t until she started volunteering at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research that she discovered the many job possibilities that work with animals. After working in the behavior lab for a while, she finally made her way to reproductive physiology, and found her niche. As a reproductive physiology research technician, Ms. Ravida is able to help out with conservation, while still getting that daily dose of animal love.

Becky, Careers Team

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