Breakthrough Process for Organ Storage and Transplant

The University of Kansas in collaboration with the University of Minnesota ATP-BIO are creating a new method for preserving whole human organs by combining newly discovered biopreservation principles with new, rapid cooling forced convection technologies.  Our primary goal is to develop technology so that viable human organs can be indefinitely preserved at scale and made available when required.  Currently, over 10,000 donor organs are discarded every year partly because the “shelf life” expires before it can reach a suitable recipient.  Our technology will transform organ transplants and create “organ banks” that would enable tens of thousands of additional organ transplants each year.  No technologies exist to “stop biological time” for whole human organs at a scale to radically reshape the fields of transplantation.  The goal for long-term preservation is organ “vitrification”, which is a glassy, ice-free state at -150 degrees Celsius.  The current process for vitrifying whole organs relies on gaseous liquid nitrogen, which cools human-sized organs such as kidneys at rates that require high concentrations of toxic cryoprotective agents to prevent ice formation.  The result is damaged to dead organs after warming.  We are developing a new liquid refrigerant technology that will increase cooling rates by orders of magnitude and eliminate the need for toxic cryoprotective agents enabling affordable, rapid, portable, and easy-to-use methods for organ preservation that can be deployed across the U.S. and the world.  The project is utilizing testbeds established at two National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Centers (ERCs):  EARTH at the University of Kansas in the Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering (WISE) and ATP-Bio at the University of Minnesota.