NSF-funded researchers successfully transplant cryopreserved pig kidney

ATP-Bio team developed the cryopreservation techniques used in the study

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/01/2025) — Researchers from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (NSF ATP-Bio) headquartered at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities recently celebrated a historic achievement with the first successful transplant of a cryopreserved large mammal kidney that was stored for more than a week before transplantation. 

Engineers and doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) who are part of ATP-Bio successfully cryopreserved a pig kidney for 10 days, then rewarmed and transplanted it into a living pig, restoring kidney function. This achievement represents a major leap forward in the quest to bank human organs for long-term storage and transport.

“The ability to safely pause biological time in a complex organ like a kidney opens the door to truly transformative change in transplantation medicine,” said Mehmet Toner, Ph.D., Deputy Director of ATP-Bio and Helen Andrus Benedict Professor at MGH and Harvard Medical School. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, about 20 percent of kidneys donated for transplantation each year can’t be used because these organs cannot be kept on ice for longer than a few hours and do not reach recipients in time. Long-term cryopreservation methods have been around for decades. However, the biggest problem has been the inability to rewarm them without major damage to the organ. 

A University of Minnesota engineering team, who are also part of ATP-Bio, developed similar rewarming techniques of cryopreserved organs. In 2023, the University of Minnesota doctors and engineers demonstrated their process by successfully transplanting a functional cryopreserved rat kidney. 

The more recent successful pig kidney transplant, conducted by MGH surgeons and ATP-Bio investigators demonstrates a process that can work for larger mammalian cryopreserved organs. The pig kidney regained function and produced urine. This is a critical first step toward long-term survival studies and eventual human application.

“This is the kind of milestone ATP-Bio was created to make possible,” said John Bischof, Ph.D., Director of ATP-Bio and Distinguished McKnight Professor at the University of Minnesota many cryopreservation techniques used in this study were initially developed in Bischof's lab at the University of Minnesota.

“Mass General Hospital has long been a pioneer in transplantation, and this collaboration shows how far we’ve come by bridging engineering and medicine,” said Korkut Uygun, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the MGH, and the lead investigator on the study. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize how organs are stored, transported, and made available to patients in need. This breakthrough is thanks to an NSF-funded effort in improving preservation technologies."

Those involved are proud of the interdisciplinary teamwork across the country that led to this breakthrough. 

"ATP-Bio work in this area involves not only this particular collaboration between Mass General Hospital and the University of Minnesota, but also the development of entirely novel, biocompatible materials for improved rewarming at University of California Riverside, new imaging methods developed at Texas A&M, mathematical modeling approaches for cryopreserved organs at Carnegie Mellon, and novel preservation methods applicable from food to fish and everything in between at University of California Berkeley," Bischof said. 

"Convergent research enabled by the NSF is unique and critical to keeping the U.S. at the forefront of transplantation and biopreservation," Bischof added.

To learn more, visit the ATP-Bio website.