Development of a Novel Cryostasis Cocktail for High Subzero Banking of Human Organs

The technical objective of this Phase 1 proposal is to develop a non-toxic, multi-component, next generation cryostasis cocktail. We seek to develop a unique, holistic and non-toxic approach to bank human organs for several weeks up to a few months. Our approach is based on using the best strategies employed by freeze-tolerant and hibernating animals in nature and then augmenting them with complementary strategies developed through recent scientific understanding, bioengineering principles and modern tools. Our cryopreservation approach is unique from other approaches since we seek to accomplish storage times of several months using an unexplored, yet highly promising methodology. Importantly, our approach will not seek to solve all the problems needed for vitrification or supercooling, but rather will be the first to develop a protocol for organ preservation in a frozen state using high subzero cryogenic storage temperatures (ranging from -5 to -20 C) combined with metabolic depression. This program targets the banking of human livers, but our discoveries and solutions should be translatable to other organ systems as well as to limbs and other VCA, potentially as early as during phase 2 of this project.