UMN Experts Leading ATP-Bio Analyze Cryobiology Advances

Cover of Annual Review publication
June 20, 2025

The Director and Deputy Director of the NSF-Funded Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio), John Bischof, PhD, and Mehmet Toner, PhD, co-edited the newly released Annual Review of Heat Transfer, Vol. 27: Cryobiology. The volume highlights transformational advances in thermal science. Three of the volume’s chapters were co-authored by UMN researchers. Cryobiology is an area of research strength for the University of Minnesota. ATP-Bio faculty, postdocs, and students at the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the other cooperating institutions are innovation leaders in the field. ATP-Bio is a Consortium Member Center. Chris Hogan, PhD, and Joseph Kangas, PhD, are co-authors on Chapter 2, Mathematical Treatments of Ice Formation and Vitrification During Cryopreservation, offering a framework to model the processes of ice formation and vitrification in cryopreservation. Chapter 6, Enhanced Heat Transfer for Improved Ice-Free Cryopreservation, authored by Bischof and Zongqi Guo, PhD, introduces a new tool for cooling and rewarming without the formation of ice, which can damage biological specimens. Chapter 8 on Review of Bulk Cryopreservation Enabled by Nanowarming focuses on nanowarming, which holds great promise for successfully restoring cryopreserved organs to full function for transplantation. Authors include Bischof; Michael Etheridge, PhD, MS; Postdoc researchers  Lakshya GangwarZonghu Han, and Onyinyechukwu Oziri; and Graduate Research Assistant Srivasupradha Ramesh. The Consortium hosts ATP-Bio’s Ethics & Public Policy component.