21st Century Medicine (21CM) is a California cryobiological research company which has as its primary focus the development of perfusates and

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

for

viable Viability or viable may refer to: Biology, medicine or ecology * Viability selection, the selection of individual organisms who can survive until they are able to reproduce * Fetal viability, the ability of a fetus to survive outside of the uter ...

long-term

cryopreservation Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cells, tissues, or organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperatures (typically or using liquid nitrogen) any cell ...

of human

organs In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...

, tissues and

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

s at temperatures below −100 °C through the use of

vitrification Vitrification (, via French ') is the full or partial transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say, a non- crystalline or amorphous solid. Glasses differ from liquids structurally and glasses possess a higher degree of connectivity ...

. 21CM was founded in 1993. In 2004 21CM received a $900,000 grant from the

U.S. National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

(NIH) to study a preservation solution developed by the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

in New York for extending simple cold storage time of human hearts removed for transplant. At the July 2005 annual conference of the

Society for Cryobiology The Society for Cryobiology is an international scientific society that was founded in 1964. Its objectives are to promote research in low temperature biology, to improve scientific understanding in this field, and to disseminate and aid in the ap ...

, 21st Century Medicine announced the vitrification of a rabbit

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

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 Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...

follow-up. On February 9, 2016, 21st Century Medicine won the Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize. On March 13, 2018, they won the Large Mammal Brain Preservation Prize.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cryobiology Cryogenics Cryonics 1993 establishments in California American companies established in 1993