NSF Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio)

Center Description

The 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. 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. The integration of Engineering and Workforce Development (EWD) and Diversity and Culture of Inclusion (DCI) 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 also include sustained and focused analyses of Ethics & Public Policy (EPP) issues so that the Center’s technology will be legally and ethically translated for public benefit.

Together with a large and active group of industrial partners, ATP-Bio aims to produce 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.

Ethics & Public Policy (EPP) | Ethics & Public Policy Panel (EP3)

The Ethics & Public Policy (EPP) component of this Center will work with Center researchers and an Ethics & Public Policy Panel (EP3) comprised of multidisciplinary national experts in ethics and policy. They will build an integrated and interdisciplinary program of ethics & policy analysis to support research and development of ATP-Bio’s technology for public benefit:

1. Analyze ethics & policy challenges raised by ATP-Bio research & key applications; Identify ethical, legal & societal issues (ELSI) raised by ATP-Bio research & applications; Collaborate within and outside ATP-Bio to analyze ELSI issues in ATP-Bio.
2. Advance ethical development & deployment of ATP-Bio technologies for societal benefit; Conduct ELSI analysis of ATP-Bio technologies anticipating development & deployment; Develop and publish ethics & policy analyses focused on ATP-Bio technologies.
3. Expose ATP-Bio investigators & trainees to EPP questions & methods; Offer events & online portal of ethics & policy resources; Collaborate on research & publication.
4. Collaborate with NSF & ERCs in Stakeholder Engagement & Impact Collaborative (SEIC); Collaborate across the Gen-4 ERCs in the NSF Stakeholder Engagement & Impact Collaborative (SEIC).
5. Conduct groundbreaking NetEthics project funded by NSF; Analyze challenges facing complex engineering networks like ERCs; Develop tools to advance ethics & responsible conduct of research (RCR) in engineering networks.

Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics Symposium (2024)

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  JLME Table of Contents

• Wolf SM, Pruett TL, Uygun K. Introduction: The Ethical, Legal & Policy Challenges of Stopping Biological Time. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):529-533;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.128.
• Wolf SM, Pruett TL, McVan CC, Brister E, Callier SL, Capron AM, Childress JF, Goodwin MB, Hyun I, Isasi R, Maynard AD, Oye KA, Thompson PB, Tiersch TR. Anticipating Biopreservation Technologies that Pause Biological Time: Building Governance & Coordination Across Applications. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):534-552;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.129.
• Maynard AD, Oye KA, Scragg M, Tripp T, Wolf SM. Successfully Bridging Innovation and Application: Exploring the Utility of a Risk Innovation Approach in ATP-Bio. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):553-569;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.126.
• Childress JF, Brister E, Thompson PB, Wolf SM, Callier SL, Capron AM, Pruett TL, Zuchowicz. Ethical Issues in Emerging Technologies to Extend the Viability of Biological Materials Across Time and Space. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):570-584;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.139.
• Hyun I, Bischof JC, Callier SL, Capron AM, Goodwin MB, Goswami I, Isasi R, Maynard AD, Pruett TL, Uygun K, Wolf SM. The Need for Early Engagement with Interested Groups on Advanced Biopreservation. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):585-594;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.134.
• Capron AM, Childress JF, Pruett TL. The Big Chill: Opportunities for, and Challenges to, Advanced Biopreservation of Organs for Transplantation. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):595-610;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.137.
• Goodwin M. An 'Amazon of Living Things'? The History & Horror of Commodifying Life. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):611-623;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.150.
• Jaskiewicz J, Wolf SM, Toner M, Sandlin R. Biopreserving Pathogens: Promise & Peril. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):624-636;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.125.
• Brister E, Gammon A, Thompson PB, Oye K. Manipulating Time by Cryopreservation: Designing an Environmental Future by Maintaining a Portal to the Past. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):637-647;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.130.
• Feys R, Uygun K, von Reiterdank IF, Wolf SM, Isasi R. Biopreservation Beyond the Biosphere: Exploring the Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Suspended Animation in Space. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2024;52(3):648-665;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.148.
• Thompson PB, Bischof JC, Powell-Palm MJ, Smith K, Tiersch TR. Biopreservation in Agriculture and Food Systems: A Summary of Ethical Issues. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. 2024;52(3):666-678;doi:10.1017/jme.2024.149.

ATP-Bio Public Webinar Series: Ethics & Public Policy Presentations

• "Community-level Approaches to Safeguard Aquatic Genetic Resources." Presented by Terrence R. Tiersch, PhD, Louisiana State University; EP3 member (October 21, 2025).
• "Biopreserving Pathogens – Promise or Peril." Presented by Justyna Jaskiewicz, DVM, PhD, Tufts University, and Rebecca Sandlin, PhD, Harvard Medical School (June 17, 2025).
• "Successfully Bridging Innovation and Application: Exploring a Risk Innovation Approach to Developing and Using Advanced Biopreservation Technologies." Presented by Andrew Maynard, PhD, Arizona State University, EP3 member (October 8, 2024)
• "What Would a Bioethics for Agricultural and Food Applications of Cryopreservation Look Like?" Presented by Paul Thompson, PhD, Michigan State University, EP3 member (April 9, 2024).
• "Using Advanced Biopreservation for Conservation:  Ethics & Justice Considerations." Presented by Evelyn Brister, PhD, Rochester Institute of Technology, EP3 member (October 17, 2023).
• "Governance Options for ATP-Bio Technologies: From Ethics to Guidance and Soft Law and Regulation." Presented by Gary Marchant, PhD, MPP, JD, Arizona State University, EP3 member (April 25, 2023)
• "Emerging Technologies and Using Nascent Bioengineering Ethics: Why Public Engagement is Essential."  Presented by Insoo Hyun, PhD, Museum of Science, Boston, EP3 member (November 17, 2022).
• "Managing Risks of Emerging Technologies:  Exemplary Cases and Cautionary Tales." Presented by Kenneth Oye, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, EP3 member (June 28, 2022).
• "Racial Equity in Evaluating Biomedical Technologies:  From Body Parts and Organ Transplantation to Reproductive Technologies."  Presented by Michele Bratcher Goodwin, JD, LLM, SJD, Georgetown University, EP3 member (April 5, 2022).
• "How to Ensure ATP-Bio's Advanced Biopreservation Yields Social Benefit: Risk Analysis and Responsible Innovation for Emerging Technologies." Presented by Andrew Maynard, PhD, Arizona State University, EP3 member (June 29, 2021).

Follow media coverage of ATP-Bio

• "This Kidney Was Frozen for 10 Days. Could Surgeons Transplant It?" Gina Kolata, New York Times (April 14, 2025)
• "The Ethics of Deep Space Travel." Miller School of Medicine News, University of Miami (December 16, 2024)
• "Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Technologies that 'Stop Biological Time.'" Andrew Maynard, The Future of Being Human (December 16, 2024)
• "University of Minnesota Scientists Part of Proposal to Create a Biorepository on the Moon." Rena Sarigianopoulos, KARE 11 News (November 26, 2024)
• "UMN Researchers are Attempting to Deep Freeze Animal Cells on the Moon. Here's Why." Cathy Wurzer, Minnesota Public Radio (August 20, 2024)
• "University of Minnesota achieves milestone in freezing organs before transplant," Jeremy Olson, Star Tribune (June 22, 2023)
• "Frozen in Time," Warren Cornwall, Science (June 21, 2023)
• "Scientists successfully unfroze rat organs and transplanted them — a ‘historic’ step that could someday transform transplant medicine," Marion Renault, Stat (June 21, 2023)
• "National Science Foundation Invests $104 Million To Launch Four New Engineering Research Centers," Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes (Aug. 6, 2020)
• "$26 Million NSF Grant to Establish New Engineering Research Center: ATP-Bio," University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research news (Aug. 4, 2020)
• "New NSF engineering research centers focus on health, transportation, quantum tech and agriculture," U.S. National Science Foundation announcement (Aug. 4, 2020)
• "UC Berkeley accelerates bio-preservation research as part of $26M NSF center," Sarah Yang, UC, Berkeley news release (Aug. 4, 2020)
• "UC Riverside joins new NSF center for the preservation of biological systems," Holly Ober, UC, Riverside news release (Aug. 4, 2020)
• "University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine and academic collaborators receive $26M for NSF engineering research center," University of Minnesota news release (July 31, 2020)