# Organ banking for transplant--kidney cryopreservation by vitrification and novel nanowarming technology

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2024 · $609,338

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Chronic kidney disease is a significant healthcare issue affecting >15% of the U.S. population and costing billions
in healthcare dollars annually. Transplantation is the best option for most patients with progressive disease,
resulting in a significant increase in life expectancy and improved quality of life compared to dialysis. The
potential U.S. deceased donor organ supply is estimated to exceed the current number of organs transplanted
by a factor of 4- to 5-fold, with a major limitation to the number of acceptable organs for transplant being the
ischemic injury sustained between recovery and implantation. A method to cryopreserve or “bank” kidneys prior
to transplant would effectively remove the influence of time from the supply chain of organ distribution. This
would allow a new paradigm for transplantation that would improve donor/recipient matching, allow for better
patient preparation, facilitate tolerance induction protocols, and increase organ utilization while improving graft
and patient survival. One promising approach that overcomes the limitations of conventional strategies is
vitrification—that is, cooling organs so quickly that they cannot undergo the phase transition from liquid to solid
ice. With the help of cryoprotective agents (CPAs), the organ enters a stable glass-like state wherein viable
storage is theoretically indefinite. The critical challenge, however, is rewarming without ice formation or cracking:
if rewarming is too slow, ice crystals form, and if rewarming is not uniform, thermal stress causes cracking. During
our initial R01 funding, we developed a novel approach termed “nanowarming” that achieved both objectives.
Iron oxide nanoparticles were perfused throughout the vasculature of the organ along with CPA solutions. The
organ was then vitrified by cooling and rewarmed on-demand by placing it in a radiofrequency coil that induces
heating in the nanoparticles and, therefore, from within the organ. We found that nanowarming could rewarm
vitrified organs, including kidneys, in animal models. We have recently shown, for the first time, that nanowarmed
organs function in vitro and in vivo following transplantation. Further, we showed successful vitrification and
nanowarming of human-sized (porcine) kidneys. These new data support the feasibility of our approach to
cryopreserve and nanowarm whole human organs for transplantation. Nevertheless, many questions
remain, including how nanowarmed kidneys function compared to control organs, what, if any, injury occurs
during nanowarming, and how to scale up to human-sized organs. In this renewal R01, we propose to: (1)
Quantitatively assess cryopreserved and nanowarmed kidney transplant function in a rat model, including long-
term preservation, long-term function, modes of injury, and alterations of the host immune response, (2) Engineer
and optimize scale-up for nanowarming vitrified human-sized organs, and (3) Vitrify and nanowarm human-sized
kidneys while meas...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10824290
- **Project number:** 5R01DK117425-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** JOHN C BISCHOF
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $609,338
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-13 → 2027-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10824290

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10824290, Organ banking for transplant--kidney cryopreservation by vitrification and novel nanowarming technology (5R01DK117425-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10824290. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*