As of May 2025, more than 103,000 Americans are waiting for an organ transplant. Beyond the shortage of donor organs, a major reason why patients die while waiting for a life-saving donation is the short window for preservation. A suitable match may not arrive before an organ loses viability.
Today, transplant organs are typically kept cool, essentially in a high-tech version of a refrigerator. But this method preserves them for less than 48 hours, drastically limiting the logistics of delivering organs to patients in need.
Freezing organs in the form of cryopreservation is believed to be a potential solution. Long-term storage could increase the number of available organs, allow better matching between donors and recipients, and improve transplant quality.
To bring this closer to reality, researchers from Texas A&M University recently published a study in Nature Scientific Reports outlining an improved method called vitrification. The technique turns organs into a glass-like state while avoiding the cracking that plagues current approaches. If perfected, it could transform not just medicine but also wildlife conservation and even food preservation.
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Cryopreservation Already Used on a Smaller Scale
So why can't we just freeze organs the conventional way? Organic material is highly sensitive to freeze damage. When water inside cells freezes slowly, it forms sharp ice crystals that rupture cell membranes. That's why we can't toss an apple into the freezer and expect it to thaw in perfect condition.
Vitrification (from the Latin vitrum, meaning glass) solves this problem by preventing ice crystal formation altogether. The process turns the cell's contents and surrounding solution into a uniform, glass-like state that can be revived through rapid thawing.
Vitrification is already used in medicine to preserve smaller samples, such as eggs and sperm in fertility treatments, as well as stem cells and tissue biopsies.
The challenge is scaling up. Whole organs are structurally complex and large, which makes them prone to cracking when subjected to vitrification.
Preventing Glassy Organs from Cracking
A milestone came in 2023, when a University of Minnesota team successfully transplanted a cryopreserved rat kidney. Building on that, the Texas A&M team studied how vitrification solutions, special mixtures infused into tissues to replace water and protect cells, can be improved for larger organs.
One important factor, they found through experimental and computational evidence, is temperature.
"We learned that higher glass transition temperatures reduce the likelihood of cracking," said Matthew Powell-Palm, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, in a press release.
This insight could help researchers design vitrification solutions that better protect larger samples, and eventually, whole human organs.
Still, as Powell-Palm noted in the press release, "cracking is only one part of the problem. The solutions need to be biocompatible with the tissue as well." That means upgrading vitrification requires expertise across physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
Cryopreservation Beyond Organ Transplantation
"I look forward to more encouraging results in this direction, which will ultimately yield an increased viability of biological systems of all scales -- from single cells to whole organs," said Guillermo Aguilar, co-author and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in the statement.
The promise of vitrification extends far beyond organ transplantation. Because it can technically be applied to any organic material, it could reshape the global "bio-cold chain." The researchers see applications in biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical storage, and even food waste reduction.
"At its core, mechanical engineering requires an understanding of how something -- anything -- works. This project integrates physical chemistry, glass physics, thermomechanics, and cryobiology," said Powell-Palm. "These students have done an amazing job applying the holistic thinking that mechanical engineering requires to this work."
And who knows, sooner rather than later, the technology might move beyond single organs to entire human bodies, turning the sci-fi dream of eternal life into something a little less fictional.
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