A stunning article in Science (Vol 380, Issue 6652; June 2023) featured a dozen Society for Cryobiology members including, Joseph Sushil Rao, Sebastian Giwa, Mehmet Toner, John Bischof, and Society President, Greg Fahy. The article focused on Dr. Sushil Rao at the University of Minnesota and the first successful transplant of vitrified, nanowarmed rat kidney. Using a mixture of cryoprotectants and iron particles, the kidney was cooled to -150°C and then rewarmed using a magnetic coil that flipped orientation 36,000 times per second. The recipient rat lived for 30 days with the transplant organ and the process was successfully repeated with four more rats.

The Society for Cryobiology 2022 election will be held October 2 - 16, 2023.

Congratulations to Prof. Boris Rubinsky, the recipient of the 2023 H.R. Lissner Medal!

Congratulations to former Society president (2016-2019), Prof. Dayong Gao on his appointment to President-Elect of ISBER! 

2022 Election Results

We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2022 election for 3 Governor-at-Large roles for the term January 2023 - December 2025. These results are in no particular order: 

Society for Cryobiology Past President (2018-2019) and Fellow Prof. Dayong Gao, and two of his group members Dr. Shen Ren and Dr. Zhiquan (Andy) Shu were recently interviewed by Forbes about the future of cryobiology. Prof. Gao leads the University of Washington's Center for Cryo-Biomedical Engineering and Artificial Organs in Seattle. 

The article offers an overview of the history of cryobiology, cryonics, and cryogenics, as well as a glimpse into the future of cryobiology research. 

The article touches on the work of deceased cryobiology giants such as Peter Mazur and Stanley Leibo.  Also mentioned are current Society for Cryobiology President Greg Fahy, and Past Presidents Jason Acker (2018-2019) and Adam Higgins (2020-2021), as well as Society Fellows John Bischof and Bill Rall, and long time members and current and former Governors Boris Rubinsky, Kelvin Brockbank, and Gang Zhao.  

Read the Full Article - Note the verbatim interview starts approximately half way down the page. 

The Society for Cryobiology 2022 election will be held November 1st - 14th, 2022.

Sometimes the world can seem like a cruel and dismal place. With issues like climate crisis, world hunger, and rising income inequality, to name a few, we can be hard-pressed to put a positive "spin" on the future our children & grandchildren will inherit.

Space Ice Crystals - no one knows how they are formed and Cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov on the International Space Station (ISS) just snapped a photo of the first ones forming on a window. The window in question is most likely in the Russian module of the ISS so further information is limited and we can only speculate.

August 1, 2022 | Noon - 5pm | MIT, Bush Room 10-105 or via Zoom

The core essence and beliefs of creating Royan Global Education Network focus on bringing all scientific activities and research of multilateral interests under one umbrella so that all those interested in various fields of activities can enjoy the benefits and seize the opportunities coming along with its activities and programs which appear as two phenomena called “Hall of Fame” and “Dialogue with Fame”. As per this spirit of unity, the 7th round Royan GENE program was held on 14 March 2022 as a Hall of Fame in the realm of Cryobiology in Organs and Sexual Samples. This Hall of Fame webinar featured highly notable lecturers from all around the world whose topics and speeches led to a fruitful webinar and discussion sessions, starting with the lectures of Prof. Gregory M.Fahy, president of Society for Cryobiology; Prof. James Benson, University of Saskatchewan; and Prof. M.H Nasr-Esfahani, director of animal biotechnology from Royan Institute. The topics and lectures represented through this program were mainly concerned with:

Vital Organ Cryopreservation
Mathematical modeling and optimization of sperm cryopreservation
Evaluation of cryoinjury of spermatozoa after slow or rapid freeze-thawing techniques

Dr. Dan Distel and his team have launched a non-profit marine genome bank at the Northeastern University Marine Science Center called the Ocean Genome Legacy Center. The OGL mission is to explore and preserve the wealth of information contained in the genomes (total DNA) of endangered, rare, unusual, and ecologically critical marine organisms and to make these primary materials available for researchers to access for future studies. So far, the OGL has amassed over 29,000 DNA samples that represent over 3,000 identified marine species. Often marine scientists spend a lifetime amassing a large number of samples and years of research notes, but what happens when they retire? Now they can donate the wealth of their collection to the OGL. The OGL doesn't just stop at the physical storage of genome samples in freezers. These DNA curators also collect the researcher's notes regarding each sample - dates, depths, locations, sample collection methods, etc. Any ambiguity leads the team back to the original researcher for clarification. This way when future researchers want to study or compare a similar sample, all the relevant context is available. Read more...

Fellow Nominations Open 

CALL FOR CRYOFELLOW NOMINATIONS - DEADLINE JULY 31


Past - President, Jason Acker, presents Past-President Dayong Gao with the CryoFellow Medal at CRYO2017. 

The CryoFellows Nominations Committee is now soliciting nominations for the appointment of new CryoFellows. This Committee, consisting of three members of the Board of Governors and two CryoFellows, evaluates the nominations and makes recommendations to the Board for approval of new Fellows.

March 28: Nominations Open 
July 31: Nominations Close
August - mid-September: Evaluation of nomination materials by Fellow Committee
September: Board of Governors to vote on Fellow Committee recommendations


The Society for Cryobiology established an award and medal of CryoFellow just over a decade ago in recognition of members of the society and individuals from the cryobiology community at large who have had an outstanding impact on the field.

CryoFellows are awarded this prestigious status in recognition of: scientific impact of their research on cryobiology (50%); sustained nature of that impact (20%); generation of scientific offspring (20%); and service to the Society (10%).

There is no formal application form on which to make the nomination, but the documents you provide the committee should be of sufficient depth to support the candidate's contributions to the categories mentioned above in a clear and demonstrable way. Usually, this will mean inclusion with the nomination:

(1) Supporting letters from members of the Society or other major contributors to cryobiology (including one from the nominator); and 

(2) a detailed resume for the nominee. I suggest you contact the proposed CryoFellow to discuss their nomination before proceeding and to obtain the resume from the nominee.

Please note the nominated individual must be living at the time that he or she is nominated.

If there is someone you would like to nominate, or you would like to have an informal discussion before proceeding with a nomination, please email me at [email protected]. 

The nominations committee is now inviting expressions of interest from all Society members in good standing for the following positions

3x Governors (2023 - 2025) 

I pleased to announce the new Editor-in-Chief of Cryobiology has been named as Prof. Janet A.W. Elliott. Prof. Elliott will assume the role of Editor-in-Chief on January 1, 2022.

After a 12-year tenure Prof. David Rawson recently made the decision to step down as Editor-in-Chief to enjoy a (second!) retirement, but also as he believes the role of Editor-in-Chief will be better served by someone who is still active in research.

A world without your favorite wine? At best you'll pay more; at worst you won't get it at all. Climate change and a lack of biodiversity are making some grape and wine varieties obsolete. The French National Institute for Research into Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE) has launched the cryopreservation of the world's largest collection of historical grapevines. This $12.1 million (€ 10.4 million) conservation center was built to protect and support plant tissue supplied by Domaine de Vassal, a 27-hectare vineyard, with grapevines collected from the 1870s and will be stored in cryobanks of liquid nitrogen at -196°C. INRAE researcher, Phillippe Chatelet says the primary challenge will be the safe regeneration of these vine tissues.
Read more.

Advancing beyond growing and testing individual cell lines in the lab, UF Health scientists have discovered a novel method of cryopreserving lung tissue at -184°F with the intention of studying the impact of the coronavirus and COVID-19 on the tissue. A key ingredient in this new cryopreserving method is a protein found in Antarctic fish which inhibits the formation of ice crystals. “When we thaw these lung tissue cells, they retain many of the original properties from before they were frozen,” said Matthew Schaller, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. “The cells are still alive and metabolically active, so they can eat and secrete and, importantly, be infected by virus.”

2021 Election Winners