"Cryogenically Suspending and Rewarming Living Biological Systems"

John Bischof, Ph.D.
Distinguished McKnight University Professor 
Medtronic-Bakken Endowed Chair for Engineering in Medicine 
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota

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ABSTRACT 
This talk will explore several breakthrough technologies from the Gen-4 NSF Engineering Research Center ATP-Bio (Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems).  The goal of ATP-Bio is to achieve cryogenic suspension of cell, tissue, organ and whole organism “testbed” systems for societal benefits in healthcare, food and sustainability and biodiversity.  Engineering approaches to achieve this based on manipulation of temperature, pressure and concentration including supercooling, partial freezing, isochoric (isovolumetric) and vitrification (glass forming) approaches will be introduced.  We will also discuss rapid and uniform rewarming of materials from these states so that they are both viable and functional for specific applications. Highlights include the first robust drosophila embryo and zebrafish embryo cryopreservation, the first scalable pancreatic islet cryopreservation, and the first cryopreservation of a whole rat kidney for up to 100 days.

BIO 
Bischof works in the area of thermal bioengineering with a focus on biopreservation, thermal therapy, and nanomedicine. His awards include the ASME Van Mow Medal and Fellowships in societies including Cryobiology, JSPS, ASME, AIMBE and IAMBE.  He has served as the President of the Society for Cryobiology and Chair of the Bioengineering Division of the ASME.  Bischof obtained a B.S. in Bioengineering from U.C. Berkeley (UCB) in 1987, an M.S. from UCB and U.C. San Francisco in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UCB in 1992. After a Post-doctoral Fellowship at Harvard in the Center for Engineering in Medicine, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1993. Bischof is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Departments of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, and the Medtronic-Bakken Endowed Chair and Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, and Director of the new NSF Engineering Research Center ATP-Bio.

The Bioengineering Seminar Series is co-hosted by the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and they are open to all in the bio-community.