Cryopreservation without Dimethyl Sulfoxide (20140289, Dr. Allison Hubel)

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Storage, Preservation and Recovery

A non-toxic cryopreservative solution increases the safety and viability of preserved cells, for many applications, such as cell therapy. The multi-component, cell-optimized solutions contain no dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and have shown significantly higher (more than double) post-thaw recovery of human cells than DMSO. The solutions show promise in storing, preserving and recovering induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and cells differentiated from iPS cells for biomedical/epigenetic research and cellular therapeutic applications.

Non-toxic Preservation Solution Optimized with Differential Evolutionary Algorithm

Current methods for preserving human cells employ dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which is systemically toxic and alters epigenetic characteristics of preserved cells, rendering them unusable for research or therapeutic purposes. Furthermore, when administered with cryopreserved cells to humans, DMSO can induce such side effects as nausea, chills, hypotension, dyspnea, vomiting, and even neurological toxicity, renal failure and cardiovascular and respiratory complications. The DMSO-free solution consists of naturally occurring, non-toxic components and shows a significant advantage over competing technologies. To optimize solution components and concentrations, a differential evolutionary algorithm is used, minimizing the amount of experimental data points necessary to converge on optimum solutions for performance.

BENEFITS AND FEATURES OF DMSO-FREE CELL PRESERVATION SOLUTIONs:

• Safe and non-toxic
• Causes no epigenetic modifications in cells
• Can be used with multiple cell types, including stem cells, iPS cells and cells differentiated from iPS cells
• Experimental data shows cell recovery more than double relative to DMSO
• Cost effective formulation
• Cellular therapy applications
• Viable storage of cells for biomedical./epigenetic research

Phase of Development - Proof of concept with lymphocytes and mesenchymal stem cells