Cryopreservation means cooling living tissue to extremely low temperatures so it can be stored for a long time. For many years, scientists tried to make this work for whole organs, but progress was slow.
In 2023, researchers in Minnesota froze a kidney and successfully transplanted it into another rat. That showed frozen organs might one day be used in human patients.
However, keeping big organs safe is still hard. When tissue cools too fast, it can crack, just like a piece of glass that freezes too quickly. These cracks damage the organ and make it unusable.
A team at Texas A&M, led by Dr. Matthew Powell‑Palm, has found a new way to lower the chance of cracking. They focused on a process called vitrification, where tissue is cooled in a special liquid until it turns into a glass‑like state. In this state, cells are “frozen in time” without forming harmful ice crystals.
The key is the glass transition temperature of the liquid. The higher this temperature, the less likely the tissue will crack. The researchers tested several mixtures and discovered that raising the glass transition temperature made the tissue more resistant to breaking.
These results give scientists a clear direction: create vitrification solutions with higher glass transition temperatures that are also safe for living cells. Dr. Powell‑Palm says that stopping cracks is only part of the challenge; the solution must also work well with the organ’s biology.
Better freezing methods could help many fields. They might protect endangered wildlife, keep vaccines stable for longer, or reduce food waste by preserving biological material.
The study involved several students and was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems.