John Bischof

University of Minnesota · company speakers →

ATP-Bio is focused on halting biological time, enabling living products to be readily available across the globe to advance healthcare, biodiversity, and food sustainability. ATP-Bio is co-led by the University of Minnesota and Massachusetts General Hospital and comprised of 6 institutions (University of Minnesota, Massachusetts General Hospital, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, Carnegie Mellon and Texas A+M), 30+ faculty, 100+ trainees and more than 40 industrial, academic and non-profit partners. ATP-Bio's biological testbeds include cells for therapy, tissues and organoids for drug discovery and therapeutics, organs for transplantation, and whole organisms to preserve genetic model systems (e.g. Drosophila and Zebrafish), as well as agricultural products and biodiversity. ATP-Bio breakthrough platform technologies include high subzero (e.g. supercooling and partial freezing), and lower subzero cryogenic (e.g. vitrification and isochoric) approaches. These technologies now enable organ and organoid preservation up to months, with the potential to address the organ wait list, and offer solutions for complex diseases such as diabetes, cardiac conditions, and liver failure. Work on whole organisms will allow critical genetic lines from Drosophila and Zebrafish to be banked at stock centers to avoid genetic drift or catastrophic loss and may one day support a lunar biorepository for terrestrial and aquatic species. In addition to research, ATP-Bio is training the workforce for the emerging "Cryo Supply Chain" which comprises a growing innovation ecosystem of commercial, academic and NGO partners. Finally, with our ELSI (Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications) colleagues, we are evaluating anticipatory governance, regulation, and societal adoption of these transformative technologies.

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