Thrust Area 1: Biological Engineering
Thrust Area 1 (TA1) supports the ability to bank and transport biological systems at the pre-cooling stage, aiming to engineer CryoProtective Agents (CPAs) and the biosystems themselves to prepare for subzero preservation and recovery to normal function. Researchers in TA1 use examples of nature’s freeze-tolerant organisms (e.g. wood frogs) to guide their bioengineering.
TA1 is supported by 14 projects involving researchers primarily at MGH and UMN, along with TAMU, UC Berkeley UC Riverside and CMU. Half of these projects involve faculty from more than one institution and all converge on achieving progress in the following tasks:
Develop novel and non toxic additives
Safely deliver the additives to all testbeds
Control cellular and metabolic engineering for preconditioning the testbeds
Optimize multithermic perfusion of organs for biopreservation
Bioengineering of a rat heart
for cryopreservation
Shannon Tessier lab, MGH
Schematic of intracellular delivery by
viscoelastic cell stretching
Derin Sevenler and Mehmet Toner, MGH
Rat liver after partial freezing
Korkut Uygun lab, MGH
Preservation and perfusion of a rat limb
Korkut Uygun lab, MGH
Shannon Tessier (MGH)
Thrust Area 1 Co-Lead
Martin Yarmush (MGH)
Thrust Area 1 Co-Lead