On-Demand Cell and Tissue Biologics for Mass Casualty Response

A key bottleneck to be addressed in regenerative medicine is hypothermic preservation of cells and tissues, which has been shown to extend survival of cell and tissue-based therapies by decreasing ischemic effect. However, current preservation technology is aged, toxic and less effective than desired, hindering efforts to repair traumatic injury and chronic disease using new cell and tissue-based therapies. The proposed extracellular-like cryopreservation matrix technology (a cryomatrix) supports the critical preservation infrastructure needed to enable post-delivery assurance of therapy viability, function, and efficacy for precious biologics such as bone marrow. Phase I engineered first-of-its-kind biomimetic cryomatrices that are thermoresponsive and biocompatible to cryopreserve biologics. These non-toxic DMSO-, protein- and serum-free cryomatrices and the chemistry governing its high cell recovery performance after storage at -80°C is made possible by bioinspired chemistry. A Phase II R&D effort will advance chemical efforts to extend the capabilities of these cryomatrices and maximize their technological impact in biobanking. The primary goal is to establish this technology for long-term storage of critical blood and tissue biologics. Cryopreserved, transported, and thawed biologics will be transplanted into an immunocompromised murine model and assessed for engraftment at various time points.