The present invention relates to the handling of biological samples, for example, the holding, manipulating and culturing of biological samples. In one form the invention provides an overlay encapsulant for an in vitro cell culture comprising a synthetic compound and in another aspect the invention provides methods of temporarily encapsulating an in vitro cell culture comprising a synthetic compound. The invention has use in relation to the culturing and more particularly the encapsulation of biological samples, such as for example zygotes, embryos, oocytes, stem cells, sperm located in a culturing space, relevant pluripotent derivative(s) and/or differentiated progeny, intact or dispersed tissue and/or intact organism(s).
