Cryopreservation, or freezing biological material for future use, has long been seen as a potential game-changer for organ transplantation, wildlife conservation, and even the preservation of vaccines. While research in this area has made significant progress over the past century, one of the biggest challenges has been finding a way to freeze large organs without causing them to crack.
These cracks occur when ice forms inside tissues during the freezing process, damaging cells and making the organs unusable for transplants. Now, according to a study from Texas A&M University, researchers have developed a solution that could solve this problem and extend the viability of cryopreserved organs.
The Cracking Problem
For years, scientists have focused on the process of vitrification, freezing organs so rapidly that they form a glass-like state instead of ice crystals. While this technique prevents ice formation, it doesn’t address the thermal stresses that cause cracking. When large organs are frozen, temperature differences between the inner and outer parts of the tissue can lead to thermal expansion and contraction, ultimately causing the organs to fracture.
According to Dr. Matthew Powell-Palm, a lead researcher at Texas A&M, cracking is one of the biggest obstacles in cryopreservation. “We learned that higher glass transition temperatures reduce the likelihood of cracking,” he said. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for successfully preserving organs at subzero temperatures for transplantation.
Vitrification and the Role of Glass Transition Temperature
Vitrification relies on using special cryoprotective solutions that cool tissues quickly to prevent ice formation. However, previous vitrification solutions had a limited range of glass transition temperatures, meaning they were prone to cracking during the freezing process. Powell-Palm and his team found that increasing the glass transition temperature of the solution reduces thermal stress on the tissue, making it less likely to crack.
In their experiments, they used solutions with varying glass transition temperatures and observed that higher values led to fewer cracks. By tweaking these solutions, they could prevent the cracking that has plagued cryopreservation efforts for so long. The findings were published in Scientific Reports in July 2025, offering new insights into the physics behind vitrification.
Expanding the Potential of Cryopreservation
Beyond organ transplants, the implications of this research could extend into a range of fields, including conservation and medicine. As Dr. Guillermo Aguilar, a co-author of the study, pointed out, this breakthrough could revolutionize how biological systems of all sizes, “from single cells to whole organs”, are preserved.
The improved vitrification solutions could also have applications in preserving pharmaceuticals or even food, which would extend their shelf life and reduce waste. The new insights into how glass transition temperatures affect the preservation process could lead to better solutions in fields ranging from biotechnology to ecological conservation.
This study, funded by the National Science Foundation, has opened the door to safer, longer-term preservation of biological materials. It marks a critical step toward overcoming the fundamental challenges of cryopreservation and advancing organ transplant science.