How Until is Engineering Away Time in Organ Transplants | Laura Deming

Until's Mission and Goals

• 🚀 Until aims for the long-term goal of reversible whole-body cryopreservation for medical hibernation.
• 🎯 In the near term, the company focuses on reversibly cryopreserving single human organs to improve efficiency for transplant patients.
• 💡 The core idea is to "press pause" on biological time, allowing patients to wait for critical cures or organs to be transported more effectively.

The Science of Cryopreservation

• 🧊 A major challenge is avoiding ice formation, as water expands when it freezes, causing substantial tissue damage.
• ✅ Reversible cryopreservation of small tissues like human embryos for over 30 years is already a proven concept.
• 🔬 The primary scientific hurdle is scaling up this technology to large, complex biological systems like whole organs or bodies, especially the brain.

Engineering Biological Challenges

• 🛠️ Until leverages engineering principles to solve biological problems, allowing for a trade-off between engineering and biological difficulty.
• 🌡️ Modulating cooling and rewarming rates is crucial to minimize the time spent in the "danger zone" of ice formation.
• 🧪 This approach helps reduce the concentration of toxic cryoprotective agents needed, improving tissue health.

Revolutionizing Organ Transplantation

• ⏱️ Current organ transplantation faces a critical timing problem, with organs expiring quickly and patients enduring "surgery center house arrest."
• 🏥 Until's technology aims to remove time as a variable, enabling optimal organ matching and reducing stress for patients and medical staff.
• 🌟 This innovation could transform the transplant paradigm, allowing for more efficient and effective organ delivery and better patient outcomes.

Broader Implications and Challenges

• 🧠 While whole-body cryopreservation is a long-term vision, the brain's resilience to injury during such a process remains a significant unknown.
• 💬 Historically, cryopreservation has struggled with resource attraction and "science fiction" perceptions, but the field is gaining mainstream acceptance.
• 🎨 Laura Deming also expresses curiosity about representing the molecular world in a more compelling and accessible way for education and appreciation.