Cryobiology is the study of life at extremely low temperatures, with
the main application being the preservation of cells and tissues for transplant. Many cell types and
some tissues are routinely preserved by cooling down to liquid nitrogen temperatures and stored indefinitely
before being transplanted. Currently this requires the use of cryoprotectant solutions that must be removed
from the tissue prior to transplantation.
Recently a research team lead by McGann and Elliott showed that it
is possible to cryopreserve tissue without using cryoprotectant solutions. This was accomplished using a model of the physics and thermodynamics of
the cryopreservation process, which they have developed and refined over the last few years. Their work provides an excellent basis for the development of optimal cooling profiles
for cryopreservation of a range of tissues. This is an exciting project, as biological tissue is a heterogenous material that can be modelled as a
nonlnear, distributed parameter system. Generation of optimal cooling profiles for systems such as these is a challenging area of research.
