Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems

The Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) aims to “stop biological time” and radically extend the ability to bank and transport cells, aquatic embryos, tissue, skin, whole organs, microphysiological systems (“organs-on-a-chip”), and even whole organisms through a team approach to build advanced biopreservation technologies. The Center will be co-led by faculty within IEM at the University of Minnesota and the Center for Engineering in Medicine (CEM) at the Massachusetts General Hospital, with collaboration from the University of California Riverside, and University of California Berkeley. Fourteen faculty members from the University of Minnesota are part of ATP-Bio which has a total of 32 faculty in all institutions. In order to build a more robust and diverse STEM workforce, especially in the growing number of fields needing biopreservation technologies, ATP-Bio also aims for equitable STEM education across all components of the Center. As such, ATP-Bio’s workforce development plan is purposefully designed to promote interest and engagement in STEM for all students. ATP-Bio will engage middle schoolers and high schoolers with biopreservation science and technology, fund numerous research internships in ATP-Bio labs for undergraduates, sponsor dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in ATP-Bio labs, and facilitate dozens of internships in the biopreservation industry. ATP-Bio will also include a focused effort on Ethics and Public Policy so that the Center’s technology will be legally and ethically translated to public benefit. Together with a large and active group of industrial partners, ATP-Bio aims to produce massive social benefit through “off-the-shelf” biopreservation technologies for cell therapies, tissue and organ transplantation, pharmacological research, aquaculture, biodiversity efforts, and many other fields. ATP-Bio will accomplish its goals by engineering technologies for biological systems before cooling, during cooling and stasis at subzero temperatures, and during rewarming to normal biological temperatures. At each stage, ATP-Bio convergent science teams will aim to eliminate or control ice formation, mitigate the toxicity of cryopreservation agents, and eliminate thermal and mechanical stress. The integration of Engineering and Workforce Development and Diversity and Culture of Inclusion across all components of ATP-Bio is aimed at creating a more diverse STEM workforce that understands team science, especially for the growing number of fields needing biopreservation technologies. ATP-Bio will leverage the long-term nature of an ERC to conduct research on developing positive STEM identity for all students and improving STEM pathways for K-12 and undergraduate STEM education, especially for women and minorities under-represented in academic and industrial STEM fields. ATP-Bio will also include focused research on Ethics and Public Policy so that the Center’s technology will be legally and ethically translated to public benefit.