21st Century Medicine

21st Century Medicine (21CM) is a California cryobiological research company which has as its primary focus the development of perfusates and protocols for viable long-term cryopreservation of human organs, tissues and cells at temperatures below −100 °C through the use of vitrification. 21CM was founded in 1993.

In 2004 21CM received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study a preservation solution developed by the University of Rochester in New York for extending simple cold storage time of human hearts removed for transplant.[1]

At the July 2005 annual conference of the Society for Cryobiology, 21st Century Medicine announced the vitrification of a rabbit kidney to −135 °C with their vitrification mixture. The kidney was successfully transplanted upon rewarming to a rabbit, the rabbit being euthanized on the 48th day for histological follow-up.[2][3]

On February 9, 2016, 21st Century Medicine won the Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize.[4] On March 13, 2018, they won the Large Mammal Brain Preservation Prize.[5]

  1. ^ "NIH grant to be used for heart preservation research". Business Wire. October 31, 2004. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  2. ^ "Plenary Session: Fundamentals of Biopreservation". CRYO 2005 Scientific Program. Society for Cryobiology. July 24, 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-08-30. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  3. ^ Fahy GM, Wowk B, Pagotan R, Chang A, Phan J, Thomson B, Phan L (2009). "Physical and biological aspects of renal vitrification". Organogenesis. 5 (3): 167–175. doi:10.4161/org.5.3.9974. PMC 2781097. PMID 20046680. After ensuring that the animal appeared capable of living indefinitely using the vitrified kidney as the sole renal support, it was euthanized for histological follow-up on day 48.
  4. ^ Thomson, Helen. "Mammal brain frozen and thawed out perfectly for first time". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  5. ^ Dvorsky, George (2018-03-14). "New Brain Preservation Technique Could Be a Path to Mind Uploading". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 2018-03-16. Retrieved 2018-12-23.