Tomorrow Bio demonstrated a training run of cryopreservation, the preservation of a body at extremely low temperature
Tomorrow Bio demonstrated a training run of cryopreservation, the preservation of a body at extremely low temperature
On August 7, Tomorrow Bio released a video of a training exercise using a purpose-built mannequin. The team rehearsed the entire process, from deploying with the equipment and beginning the initial cooling to administering the cryoprotectant, transporting the mannequin to Switzerland, and assessing the quality of the procedure.
The exercise begins before surgery. In the video, the team loads the equipment into a vehicle, brings in the mannequin on a stretcher fitted with an ice bath, and begins cooling, chest compressions, oxygen delivery, and drug administration. Once the temperature has fallen, the surgeon has time to proceed to the next step.
The surgeon opens the chest and inserts a cannula, a tube used to deliver fluid, into the ascending aorta, the large blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart. The team first uses the cannula to deliver a washout solution that displaces the blood, followed by a cryoprotectant. The cryoprotectant allows tissues to be cooled to extremely low temperatures without forming ice crystals.
As the solution flows through the blood vessels, in a stage called perfusion, the team measures pressure, temperature, and refractive index. The refractive index changes with the composition of the solution, which helps the team determine whether the cryoprotectant concentration is increasing. Cameras record the procedure for use in future training sessions. One of them also allows a physician who is not on site to participate remotely.
After perfusion, the scenario calls for further cooling and transport to Switzerland. According to the sequence shown in the video, the team there would perform computed tomography to examine how the cryoprotectant was distributed. If consent had been obtained in advance, the team would also collect small tissue samples for electron microscopy, which reveals fine cellular structure.
In March, Tomorrow Bio had already explained why computed tomography alone is not enough to assess the quality of preservation: the company also plans to examine small tissue samples with an electron microscope. The current exercise shows the sequence that precedes this assessment. Evaluating the quality of the procedure requires both the final scan and information about how effectively the solution was circulated through the blood vessels.
“Human cryopreservation is largely a logistics problem,” Tomorrow Bio writes in its plan for 2026.
Each stage of the exercise prepares for the next. Initial cooling gives the surgeons time, the cannula in the aorta allows the solutions to circulate, and the measurements and subsequent assessment in Switzerland help determine how well the procedure was performed.