The Society for Cryobiology has signed an agreement to become a non-profit member of the Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio). ATP-Bio has been born out of a $26 million NSF grant over 5 years.
ATP-Bio aims to “stop biological time” and radically extend the ability to bank and transport cells, aquatic embryos, tissue, skin, whole organs, microphysiological systems (“organs-on-a-chip”), and even whole organisms through a team approach to build advanced biopreservation technologies. Read more about ATP-Bio's aims.
ATP-Bio will be co-led by faculty within IEM at the University of Minnesota and the Center for Engineering in Medicine (CEM) at the Massachusetts General Hospital, with collaboration from the University of California Riverside, and the University of California Berkeley.
Alongside research, ATP-Bio will also focus efforts on developing a STEM workforce for the future by promoting interest and engagement in STEM by developing positive STEM identity for all students K-12 and undergraduate STEM education, especially for women and minorities under-represented in academic and industrial STEM fields. ATP-Bio will also focus on Ethics and Public Policy so that the Center’s technology will be legally and ethically translated to public benefit.
Together with a large and active group of industrial partners, ATP-Bio aims to produce massive social benefits through “off-the-shelf” biopreservation technologies for cell therapies, tissue and organ transplantation, pharmacological research, aquaculture, biodiversity efforts, and many other fields.
Society for Cryobiology longtime member and CryoFellow John Bischof is the director of ATP-Bio. Society for Cryobiology member Mehmet Toner is the deputy director.