ME Researchers Perform First Successful Transplant of Functional Cryopreserved Rat Kidney

In a groundbreaking new study, engineers and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have proven the life-saving potential of long-term organ preservation at ultra-low temperatures by successfully transplanting a rewarmed kidney in a rat and restoring full kidney function. 

The research, published in Nature Communications, has the potential to save thousands of human lives by enabling long-term storage of organs for transplantation. 

“This is the first time anyone has published a robust protocol for long-term storage, rewarming, and successful transplantation of a functional preserved organ in an animal,” said the study’s co-senior author John Bischof, a mechanical engineering professor and director of the University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine. “All of our research over more than a decade and that of our colleagues in the field  has shown that this process should work, then that it could work, but now we’ve shown that it actually does work.” 

Distinguished McKnight Professor Bischof came to the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and works in the area of thermal bioengineering with a focus on biopreservation, thermal therapy, and nanomedicine. In addition to his University appointments, he is also Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center Advanced Technologies for Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio), which launched on September 1, 2020.

View complete news release here: Researchers perform first successful transplant of functional cryopreserved rat kidney | University of Minnesota (umn.edu)