[If you are in academia or research and would like to see your website listed here or to have the text reworded and/or updated, please do not hesitate to contact me at
sputtek(at)hotmail(dot)com]
Dr. Acker is a Senior Scientist with the Canadian Blood Services and an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Acker has focused his research program on understanding the biological response of cells to freezing and freeze-drying and has contributed to the design of new methods for the long-term storage of a number of cell types and tissues used in transfusion and transplant medicine. In addition to his work in biopreservation, Dr. Acker has an active research interest in the use of microfabrication and microfluidics technology in diagnostic testing. Using tools developed for the microelectronics industry to fabricate micro-scale devices for integrated chemical and biological processing and analysis, he is a theme leader on an interdisciplinary Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research team that is using micro/nanotechnology to develop novel, cost-effective, automated devices for blood testing. In 2009, Dr. Acker co-founded an Alberta biotechnology company that is commercializing lab-on-a-chip technology for use in developing and developed countries for the detection of malaria and other blood borne parasites. As the Associate Director, Development with Canadian Blood Services, Dr. Acker leads their national development program. Working with a team of researchers and technical staff in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax, Dr. Acker developed an innovation program that brings scientific and technical expertise to support the design, development and validation of new products, processes and instrumentation. Dr. Acker’s team has been extremely successful in promoting continuous improvement and fostering a culture that integrates innovation into Canadian Blood Services businesses. Dr. Acker has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1996 and is the current chair of the program committee (2009-2011). As a co-founder of the International Cryobiology Young Research (ICYR) group, he has been committed to supporting the development of students and young investigators within the discipline. Dr. Acker was the co-chair of the 2007 Cryobiology meeting in Lake Louise, Canada and is a co-founder of the Extreme Cryobiology meeting that has been held annually since 1998 in Canada. Dr. Acker serves as an editorial board member for Cryobiology, Cryo-Letters and Biopreservation and Biobanking and is an invited reviewer for more than 10 scientific journals. He is a member of the American Association of Blood Banks, the International Society for Blood Transfusion and the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine.
Dr. Adams received her BSc, PgDipSci and PhD from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her PhD involved developing cryopreservation methods for the gametes and larvae of the New Zealand sea urchin, Evechinus chloroticus and of other marine invertebrate species. Dr. Adams then went on to do a post-doc at the University of Luton in the UK under Professor Tiantian Zhang and Professor David Rawson investigating aspects of cryopreservation and permeability of zebrafish embryos and oocytes. She returned to New Zealand in 2004 to join the Aquaculture and Biotechnology group at the Cawthron Institute. She currently leads the cryopreservation programme at Cawthron which aims to develop methods for cryopreserving the gametes, embryos and larvae of New Zealand’s commercially important shellfish species. The group were the first in the world to publish a successful method for cryopreserving eggs of an aquatic species (Pacific oysters) in large quantities. Dr. Adams has gone on to publish several papers and book chapters relating to cryopreservation in aquatic species. Dr. Adams has also been involved in developing cryopreservation methods for marine and freshwater micro-algae and establishing a bank for the Cawthron Culture Collection of micro-algae. Dr. Adams and Dr. Samantha Gale from the Cawthron have been assisting New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and Spanish avian reproduction expert, Dr. Juan Blanco to develop a cryopreservation method for sperm of the Kakapo – New Zealand’s flightless endangered parrot. Dr. Adams is involved in other aspects of aquaculture research as well as developing methods for direct toxicity assessments for ecotoxicology.
Dr. Yuksel Agca received his doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from University of Ankara, Turkey. His first acquaintance with cryobiology began in 1992 when he was pursuing MSc. degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and continued on during Ph.D. program at the Cryobiology Research Institute at the Methodist Hospital of Indiana. He studied fundamental cryobiology of mammalian oocytes under the guidance of Dr. John Critser. Dr. Agca had spent 3 years in Indiana University medical school as a post-doctoral fellow from 1999 to 2001. Dr. Agca is currently an Associate Professor at the University Of Missouri College Of Veterinary Medicine. His NIH funded research program focuses on germplasm cryobiology and genetic modification in rats. To date, he had the opportunity to collaborate with outstanding group of scientists who have been working on better understanding of cryobiologic properties of cell and tissue (e.g. gametes, ovarian tissues, pancreatic islet cells and stem cells) of biomedically and agriculturally important species. These interactions provided him with a comprehensive perspective of the field of cell and tissue cryobanking. Throughout his career development he had the opportunity to work with many mammalian species including mouse, rat, pig, cattle, sheep, cat, human and primates. To date, his research findings were published in 15 different referred journals and he has contributed to 6 book chapters. He has mentored and trained many students, research fellows, national and international visiting scholars. He had the great opportunity during the establishment of two NIH funded national genome resources centers, namely Rat Resource and Research Center and the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Center. He is currently one of the Co-investigators of these two national genome resource centers and overseeing cryobiology section. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1995, and is currently (2012-2013) the Society Secretary.
John Armitage is a Professorial Research Fellow in Tissue Biology and Transplantation, and Director of Tissue Banking in the Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. He completed a PhD on cardiac cryopreservation in David Pegg’s lab in 1979 and has remained active in cryobiological research, focusing on the preservation of cells and tissues for transplantation. Research into osmotic stress and cell volume changes during the addition and removal of cryoprotectants was an interest sparked while a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Mazur. Apart from diverse areas such as cryopreservation of cord blood stem cells and heart valves, a brief flirtation with fish gametes, and the role of cell junctions in freezing injury, Armitage’s main current research interests in cryobiology include the freezing and vitrification of tissues, in particular cornea. Since moving to Bristol in 1984 to set up the Bristol Eye Bank, which soon became one of the largest eye banks in Europe, he has also been active in research into the clinical outcome of corneal transplantation with interests in transplantation immunology, corneal cell biology, and modelling the long-term, endothelial cell loss from corneal grafts, the latter in collaboration with Bill Bourne. Armitage is also active in heart valve banking, having set up a valve bank in Bristol in the early 1990s. A member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1978, Armitage first served on the Board of Governors in 1985 and was later elected to two consecutive terms as Secretary in the 1990s. He has been on the Editorial Board of Cryobiology since 1989.
John G. Baust is the UNESCO Professor and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Technology at Binghamton University of the State University of New York. The Institute oversees a multidisciplinary research programs in translational cryomedicine including areas such as cryogenic engineering, cryoablative strategies in cardiovascular disease and cancer therapy along with cell/tissue cryopreservation at both the University and within the biotechnology industry. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biopreservation and Biobanking, and served in the past as Editor of the Society for Cryobiology publication News Notes and in 2007 co-edited the CRC text Advances in Biopreservation. On behalf of the Society he has organized and hosted three annual meetings of the Society (CRYO 2002, 1990 and 1982). In addition to having served as President of the Society, he was named Fellow of the Society in 2010, has been elected to the Board of Governors, to the position of Vice President and has served as chair of both the Publication and Membership Committees. On behalf of the Society he chairs the international Committee on Best Practices in Cryopreservation. He is also the U.S. Delegate to and Commission President of the International Congress of Refrigeration, widely published within the discipline and serves on various federal, foundation and corporate boards. He has also founded and co-founded a number of cryobiology-based companies that have contributed to the advancement of translational research to the clinic and research laboratory. He was elected President and Fellow of the American College of Cryosurgery in 2011.
Dr. Benson is a National Research Council postdoctoral research associate in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He completed his B.Sc. in Mathematics at Purdue and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Missouri. Dr. Benson has been involved in the field of Cryobiology since 1994, collaborating on work studying the fundamental cryobiological properties of hamster islets of Langerhans and mouse spermatozoa, and even participated as an entertainer and poster presenter in the Cryo 1996 meeting in Indianapolis prior to starting college. Fifteen years and three degrees later, his research focuses on the mathematical optimization of cryobiological protocols, measurement of biophysical parameters relevant to cryopreservation, the improvement of these measurement techniques, and the fundamental cryobiology of reproductive cells and tissues. Dr. Benson has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 2002. In 2008 Dr. Benson was awarded the Society for Cryobiology's Peter J. Steponkus Crystal Award for his presentation on the interaction between the fluid environment and extracellular concentration, and in 2007 Dr. Benson was awarded the Donald K. Anderson graduate research award, the University of Missouri's highest research award for graduate students based on his work in the field of cryobiology and its highly collaborative, interdisciplinary nature. In addition, Dr. Benson has served as a student award judge for two years at the Annual Meetings of the Society for Cryobiology. Dr. Benson's postdoctoral fellowship is in the mathematical optimization of complex systems, and will be applied to the mathematical optimization of the cryopreservation of tissues and organs. He is currently serving as a member of the editorial board of CryoLetters.
Professor; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. The bioheat and mass transfer laboratory at the under Dr. Bischof's direction is dedicated to the thermophysical and biological study of systems after thermal manipulations (i.e. heating or cooling). This work is in the scientific areas of cryobiology (low temperature biology) and hyperthermic biology and impacts the following applications (selected): cryopreservation and biopreservation by freezing, hypothermic storage, drying or vitrification, cryosurgery, characterization of burn injury in tissues and thermal therapies using various energy sourcies. Dr. Bischof is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Cryobiology and served as President of the Society for Cryobiology.
Dr. Gary Bryant is currently Associate Professor of Soft Condensed Matter Physics at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia. His main research interests are: (i) understanding the physical mechanisms of damage to biological tissue during freezing and dehydration; and (ii) improving our understanding of the fundamentals of crystallization and the glass transition. For (i) much of his work has focussed on using a range of physical techniques (such as NMR, DSC and SAXS) to investigate freezing and dehydration effects on membranes, and developing physical models to explain these experiments. Currently his research is moving into the area of the mechanisms of damage in seeds during long term storage. For (ii) his work involves studying the detailed kinetics and dynamics of both crystallization and glass formation in model colloidal systems, which is ongoing. Gary Bryant is currently serving the Society for Cryobiology as a member of Membership Committee.
Dr. Ram Devireddy is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Louisiana State University. Dr. Devireddy earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with honors from the University of Madras in 1993, followed by a Master of Science in the same field in 1995 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Subsequently, he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis in 1999. After spending a year as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, he joined the Louisiana State University where he currently serves as a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering. He has co-authored over 25 journal papers and over 40 proceedings and meeting abstracts and has made significant contributions to the fields of reproductive cryobiology, membrane transport and bioheat transfer. He is the recipient of several scientific awards including the Crystal Award from the Society of Cryobiology in 1998, a best paper award from the ASME Heat Transfer Division in 2002, and a Ribbon Award at the 2004 Fall meeting of the Materials Research Society.
Dr. Gloria Elliott is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at UNC Charlotte. She is formally trained in both science (B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada) and engineering (M.S., Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, MI, USA). She has been involved in cryobiology and anhydrobiology research since 1997. Dr. Elliott’s PhD training involved in vivo fluorescence imaging to study the effectiveness of thermal treatments during cryosurgery, and she was the first to apply Green Fluorescent Protein imaging to cryobiology applications. Dr. Elliott’s post-doctoral research at the Center for Engineering in Medicine in Boston, MA, USA, focused on anhydrous stabilization technologies, with specific emphasis on the creation of intra-cellular sugar glasses to achieve room temperature storage of cell-based biologics. Her post-doctoral research led to new fluorescence microscopy advances in localized moisture detection in sugar-glasses, as well as advances in cell engineering to modify the intracellular matrix in a controlled non-destructive manner. Since joining UNC Charlotte Dr. Elliott has continued to develop a biopreservation research program with an emphasis on biomaterials research and development, cellular dehydration technologies, as well as intracellular sensing of bio-physical properties. Specific directions include the development of non-toxic cellular and protein protectants for long-term storage formulations as well as the advancement of dehydration technologies to achieve room-temperature storage of biologics. During her graduate program she helped form and lead the International Cryobiology Young Researcher Group. She has also worked on enriching annual meetings by organizing events within the context of ICYR activities and as a member-at-large, including an NSF grantsmanship workshop at the 2005 Minnesota meeting. She also served as Inspector of Elections for the Society in 2006, and routinely chairs sessions at annual meetings. Dr. Elliott co-organized the annual meeting of the Society for Cryobiology, Cryo 2008, which was held in Charlotte, NC. She also served on the Board of Governors from 2007-2010. Dr. Elliott currently serves on the editorial board for Biopreservation and Biobanking and is an ad hoc reviewer for the journals Cryobiology and CryoLetters.
Dr. Ali Eroglu is a tenured Associate Professor at the Georgia Health Sciences University in Georgia, USA. He graduated from the Veterinary Medical School of Istanbul University in Turkey with a DVM degree and completed his PhD at the Justus-Liebig University in Germany. His thesis was on in vitro maturation and protein synthesis of porcine oocytes. Later, he worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School as a post-doctoral research associate. His post-doctoral work focused on cell and tissue preservation with a particular interest in oocyte cryopreservation. In 2003, he joined the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Health Sciences University as a Faculty. In addition to Cryobiology, his current research focuses on Regenerative Medicine and Epigenetics. His administrative responsibilities include serving as Co-Director of the Human Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank. He also served as Director of the Transgenic and Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility at the Georgia Health Sciences University for two years. Dr. Eroglu has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1997 and served as a session chair and member of the Awards Committee at several annual meetings of the Society for Cryobiology. He was a member of the Organizing and Scientific Program Committee for Cryo 2000. He has also been a member of the Board of Governors (2009-2011). Dr. Eroglu published numerous papers on cell and tissue cryopreservation and holds an international patent involving cryobiology. He was on the editorial board of Biology of Reproduction for 3 years and has also been an ad hoc reviewer for 15 international journals including Cryobiology and CryoLetters. In addition to the Society for Cryobiology, Dr. Eroglu has been a member of several other scientific societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and Society for the Study of Reproduction.
Dr. Fonseca, both Uruguayan and French citizen received her PhD in Biotechnology and Process Engineering in 2001, from AgroParisTech, France. She has been, for the last ten years, a Research Scientist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), in the Joint Research Unit of Microbiological and Food Process Engineering (UMR GMPA, INRA-AgroParisTech), Versailles-Grignon Centre, France. Dr. Fonseca has been a member of the Society of Cryobiology since 2004. Her research field is the biotechnology and process engineering, with particular emphasis in fermentation, formulation and stabilization of biological products by freezing and freeze-drying. The principal models of study have been lactic acid bacteria, but also proteins and food products. Her research interests focus in the thermophysical and chemical changes taking place within biomaterials following freezing and freeze-drying processes and in relating them to biological and functional responses. The main objectives are to identify and quantify the mechanisms governing the degradation and/or the preservation of bioproducts during their manufacturing processes, mainly during freezing and freeze-drying. The ambition is also to find general principles for simplifying and rationalising the development of new formulated products and optimization of the stabilization process.
At present Professor Felix Franks is the Director of the London based BioUpdate Foundation. His efforts and interest have been devoted mainly to studies of the mysteries of water in our ecosystem - its physics, chemistry, technology, its role in the creation and support of life, and aspects of water purification, distribution, usage, economics and politics. Beginning in industry, he made the transition to academia and back again to industry six times and now prides himself of having gained an understanding concerning the nature of the various interfaces that join or divide international scientific endeavor. In 1975 he became interested in mechanisms that provide natural resistance against so-called water stress, induced by drought, freezing or saline conditions. The work led to the insight that vitrification (glass formation) of aqueous media is a powerful principle that protects many living species during periods of extreme water stress. By applying this insight to the in vitro stabilization of labile biological molecules, his team was able to produce stable therapeutic molecules in the dry state. Felix Franks is the founder of CryoLetters, a bimonthly international journal for low temperature sciences, including cryobiology, cryopreservation or vitrification of cells and tissues, chemical and physical aspects of freezing and drying, and studies involving ecology of cold environments, and cold adaptation ecological problems.
Barry Fuller is Professor in Surgical Sciences and Low Temperature Medicine at the Royal Free and University College London Medical School, in London, UK, and holds honorary posts as Visiting Professor in Cryobiology at the University of Bedfordshire, and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cardiff. He organises the scientific aspects of the clinical organ preservation programme and therapeutic tissue banking for the Royal Free Hospital, and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students, including courses in applied cryobiology. Current research interests include modulation of organ function during cold preservation by preconditioning, magnetic resonance studies of whole organ metabolism at hypothermia, cryopreservation of encapsulated liver cells for liver support, and improved cryoprotectant regimes for mammalian oocytes. He is also involved as scientific secretary with the UNESCO Chair in Cryobiology, based at the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and linking to other groups in the Former Soviet States and in Latin America at the University of Rosario. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1985, has previously served as a member of the Board of Governors and Meetings Secretary for the Society, is a member of the British Transplant Society and Society for Low Temperature Biology. He has published widely on aspects of cryobiology, of most recent note as an editor for Life in the Frozen State, is a member of the editorial partnership publishing CryoLetters, and is a member of the editorial boards for Cryobiology, Cell Preservation Technology, Problems of Cryobiology and Transplantation. He organised the London meeting for the Society for Low Temperature Biology in 2003.
Dayong Gao, Professor, Director of Cryopreservation and Artificial Organ Research, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, USA (2004-present). Baxter-Healthcare Chair of Bioengineering, and Endowed Alumni Professor at University of Kentucky, USA (1998-2004). Dr. Gao has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology for 20 years, elected as Treasurer (2000-2002) and served on Board of Governors (2003-2007) of our Society. He organized “Cryo-Biomedical Engineering”, “Human Platelet Cryopreservation”, “Advances in Low Temperature Biomedical Engineering” Symposia at the 33rd, 35th, and 39th Annual Meetings of the Society, respectively. He was Conference Chairman of CRYO2004 (the 41st Annual Meeting). He completed his Ph.D. research in Cryobiology at Concordia and McGill Universities in 1991, Montreal, Canada, and continued the post-doctoral research and training under the guidance of Dr. John Critser and Dr. Peter Mazur (1992-1994) at the Cryobiology Research Institute, Indianapolis, USA. During the past 20 years, his research has focused on fundamental and applied cryobiology as well as bioengineering. His research projects included (1) fundamental cryobiology of cells and tissues, (2) technology for biopreservation and banking, and (3) artificial kidney and livers, bio-instruments and nano-/micro-biotechnology. He has published over 140 refereed full manuscripts in scientific Journals, 11 invited Book Chapters, 10 USA patents, and numerous manuscripts in Conference Proceedings.
Birgit Glasmacher is Full Professor of Multiphase Processes/Biomedical Engineering and director of the Institute of Multiphase Processes/Biomedical Engineering of the University of Hannover, Germany. In addition, she is spokesman of the Centre of Biomedical Engineering of the University of Hannover. She teaches lectures in the field of Cryobiology, Heat and Mass Transfer, Multiphase Fluid Mechanics, Biomaterials Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Implant Technology. Some of her research interests focus on electrofreezing and the cryopreservation of tissue engineered constructs with freezedried or electrospun and nanostructured matrices, fat and stem cells, cornea and heart valve homograft banking. Besides SFC, Prof. Glasmacher is also a member of the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO), the Society for Low Temperature Biology (SLTB), the European Society for Tissue Engineering (ETES), the Society for Heart Valve Disease (SHVD), the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM), and the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT). She coorganized the annual meeting of the ESAO in 2003 in Aachen; since 2005 she is also elected as ESAO BOG member. Within the World Congress of Biomechanics 2006, she serves as track coordinator “Biomaterials” and is responsible for one “Bioheat Transfer” session.
Bumsoo Han is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, U.S.A. Prior to joining Purdue, he has been Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, and his M.S. and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea. After his Ph.D., he was Post-doctoral Research Associate in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research interests are in transport phenomena related to cryobiology application to tissue engineering and cancer therapy. His research has been supported by various funding agencies including U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation, Purdue Research Foundation, Lilly Endowment, the State of Texas, and Korea Polar Research Institutes. He received US Department of Defense Postdoctoral Award from Breast Cancer Research Program, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and Richard Skalak Best Paper Award from ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 2002. He has also been a member of Biotransport committee of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In both societies, he organized and chaired technical sessions at various Conferences including of the Annual Meetings of Society for Cryobiology, International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) and Summer Bioengineering Conference.
Dr. Heacox is the Senior Vice President of Research and Development at CryoLife, Inc and has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1984. Dr. Heacox completed his B.A and M.S degrees in biology at Adelphi University and received a Ph.D. in zoology from Washington State University. His research interests, at that time, were in reproductive biology, gametogenesis and control of sexual differentiation in invertebrates. He continued this pursuit during a post-doc at the University of Köln (Germany) where he studied yolk formation during oogenesis. This led to a joint research project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and North Dakota State University investigating storing insect germplasm through the cryopreservation of insect cell lines, pole cells and larvae. He joined CryoLife in 1985 as Director of Laboratory Operations responsible for developing and implementing processes and procedures for cryopreserving and storing human tissues for transplant with specific focus on heart valves, vascular grafts and soft orthopedic tissues. In 1998 he was promoted to V.P. of Laboratory Operations responsible for all aspects of the company’s tissue processing and manufacturing operations. This included overseeing the production of BioGlue, implantable devices at Ideas for Medicine (a wholly owned subsidiary of CryoLife), as well as bioprosthetic heart valves and vascular grafts. In late 2004 he assumed the position of Sr. V.P. of R&D at CryoLife and Chief Operating Officer of AuraZyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Currently, his department is actively investigating new methods for disinfecting and sterilizing allograft tissue, decellularization and antigen reduction of xenograft tissues for transplant, alternative methods for long term storage of allografts, and developing surgical adhesives and hemostatic agents. Dr. Heacox is a member of AAAS, the Scientific and Technical Affairs Committee for the American Association of Tissue Banks, Co-Chair of the Committee of Scientific Researchers for Georgia Bio (a non-profit organization that promotes growth of Georgia’s life science industry), and a member of the External Advisory Committee for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Kennesaw State University.
Dr. Adam Higgins is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University. He received a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Oregon State University in 2002, and then began graduate studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the guidance of Dr. Jens Karlsson. He received a PhD in Bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008. His PhD research focused on measurement and modeling of cell membrane water transport in adherent cells and the effects of water transport on the kinetics of intracellular ice formation. His current research focuses on the development of mathematical optimization strategies for the design of vitrification procedures, and microfluidic processes for cryopreservation. Dr. Higgins has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 2003. He has served on student awards committees during several annual meetings, and is currently a member of the Program Committee. He was a co-chair for the 48th annual meeting of the Society for Cryobiology, which was held in Corvallis, Oregon from July 24-27, 2011. His student, Allyson Fry, was the recipient of the Peter L. Steponkus Crystal award in 2011 for her work on mathematical optimization of cryoprotectant addition and removal procedures for the vitrification of adherent cells. Dr. Higgins has also been active with the International Young Cryobiology Research (ICYR) group. He organized the ICYR activities during the 2010 Cryobiology meeting, and he was actively involved in organizing the ICYR barbeque during the 2011 meeting, along with local students. He is currently (2012) a member of the ICYR Board of Governors.
Dr. Hagedorn received her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and has been a Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Institution for the past 13 years. She has worked in aquatic ecosystems around the world, has taught many university-level classes, lectures frequently to lay audiences, maintains an active laboratory with graduate students and post docs, and is a successful researcher and active grant writer. In the past years, she has written and managed several multi-year, externally funded, research grants (mostly from NIH and Maryland Sea Grant College) with collaborators in over 12 institutions throughout the US and Latin America. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator on a NIH grant for 1.2 million dollars that includes sub-contracts for three collaborating institutions over 5 years. In 2000, she received the prestigious George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Theoretic Sciences and this year is a nominee for the Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation. Dr. Hagedorn is active in many scientific societies. She has served on the Board of Governors of the Society of Cryobiology for three years and has been on the Editorial Board for over 6 years. Dr. Hagedorn is a marine physiologist whose work has broad conservation implications. In her current research, she has developed parallel research interests related to the conservation of fish and coral species.
Dr. Jelena Holovati received her BSc in Medical Laboratory Science and Medical Laboratory Technologist certification from both the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists in 2002. After working in clinical laboratories, Dr. Holovati went on to complete her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences at the University of Alberta (2008). Her thesis focused on quality and clinical utilization of frozen red blood cell units and investigating new approaches for clinical red blood cell preservation. During her tenure at the University of Alberta, she won various university, national and international awards, including the Canadian Blood Services Graduate Fellowship. Dr. Holovati is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada (2008) and an Adjunct Scientist with the Canadian Blood Services (2009). She currently supervises MSc and Ph.D. students in the field of cryobiology and transfusion medicine and teaches in the Medical Laboratory Sciences Division. Dr. Holovati’s research interest remains biopreservation of blood cells, and she is at present (2012) also a member of other societies, including the American Association of Blood Banks, the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science and the American Society for Clinical Pathologists.
Dr. Hubel is the Mayhugh Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. For more than 20 years, Dr. Hubel has studied both basic science and translational issue behind cell and tissue preservation. Her research focuses on cell and tissue preservation for human therapeutic applications. She has published numerous articles related to this field and two patents related to cell preservation technology. Dr. Hubel has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1986 and has served on the Board of Governors of the Society since 2002 and has also served as the chair of the Program Committee. She has served as the co-Chair of the Society for Cryobiology annual meeting in 2005 in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Hubel is on the editorial board for Cell Preservation Technology and an ad hoc reviewer for over 20 journals. Dr. Hubel’s work in the field also includes providing a professional short course on cell and tissue preservation that has been offered for over three years.
Hiroshi Ishiguro is currently a Professor of Biothermal Engineering and a leader of Biomechanics Group in the Department of Biological Functions and Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan. He received his B. Eng. (1980), M.Eng. (1982) and Dr.Eng. (1985) degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT). He has worked as an Assistant Professor and an Associate Professor at University of Tsukuba until 2000. He has worked actively as a leader of Bio-Heat and Mass Transfer, particularly, under low temperatures in the area of Mechanical Engineering in Japan. He is a member of the Society for Cryobiology, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), the Japan Society for Cryobiology and Cryotechnology (JSCC), the Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ), the Japan Society for Low Temperature Medicine (JSLTM), the Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (JSRACE), etc. His main research interests focus on the measurement of microscopic phenomenon affecting biological materials during freezing and thawing and the measurement and modeling of relevant transport phenomena. This work impacts the better-understanding of injury mechanisms and process design in relation to cryopreservation, cryosurgery, tissue engineering, and food engineering. He received the JSME MEDAL for the Best Papers (1995), and the JSRACE AWARD for the Best Papers (2000). He currently serves as a member of various committees of JSME, HTSJ, JSCC, JSLTM, and ASME. He has frequently served as an organizer of the sessions of Bio-Heat and Mass Transfer including engineering aspects of cryobiology in annual meetings and conferences of JSME, HTSJ, and JSLTM and as a secretary of the Workshops of Bio-Heat and Mass Transfer.
Dr. Eric James is Senior Director of Vaccine Stabilization and Logistics at Sanaria Inc, in Rockville MD; Sanaria is developing a vaccine against malaria. He graduated from London University, UK with a B.Sc. in Zoology and from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with a M.Sc in Medical Parasitology and Ph.D. in Helminth Immunity. His first postdoc appointment was to a research program aimed at developing a vaccine against schistosomiasis (a parasitic disease afflicting >200 million people). The live attenuated vaccine organisms needed to be cryopreserved, which led to novel work on vitrification in collaboration with John Farrant then working in David Pegg’s group at the MRC Northwick Park, UK, and subsequent successful cryopreservation of a number of human and animal helminth parasites. He moved to a research and teaching faculty position at the Medical University of South Carolina to work on a vaccine against onchocerciasis (River Blindness), where cryopreservation studies were extended to include a toxoplasmosis vaccine, entomopathogenic nematodes and other organisms. Consulting with Sanaria from its inception in 2003 to work on cryopreservation of malaria sporozoites, he moved to the company in 2007. Current work includes manufacturing the cryopreserved attenuated PfSPZ malaria vaccine and cryopreservation studies of other malaria life cycle stages and its insect vector, and development of a liquid nitrogen vapor phase LNVP) distribution system for the vaccine. He is a member of several societies including the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Society for Low Temperature Biology (serving as general Secretary 1980-1983) as well as the Society for Cryobiology (since 1976; Governor-at-large 2009-2011, current Chair of the Publications Committee), and has served on the Cryobiology Editorial Board. In addition to publishing on parasitology and cryobiology, he is a reviewer for several journals, has served as a grants reviewer for agencies including NIH, received grants from the Wellcome Trust, NIH, USDA, Clark Foundation and other sources, and has consulted for pharmaceutical and veterinary medicine companies on cryopreservation of parasites.
M.S. Degree in Biophysics (1979); Ph.D. in Cell Biology (1985); Post-Doctorate in Cryobiology (1996-98) (Peter Mazur’s Lab). Currently at UCSD Cancer Center, San Diego, USA. Over 30 full size peer reviewed papers and more than 70 other publications, mainly in the field of cryobiology.
Dr. Karlsson is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University, where he leads the Cellular & Molecular Bioengineering Research Group. His prior academic appointments have included positions on the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology as well as the University of Illinois. Dr. Karlsson has also worked full-time and part-time as a scientific consultant in the areas of cryopreservation and biotransport. His research interests are in the area of thermodynamics and transport in biological systems, and in particular the mechanisms of irreversible damage to cells and tissues during cryopreservation. Recognition for the research performed by Dr. Karlsson and his team has included a Distinguished Assistant Professorship title, the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, as well as the Society for Cryobiology’s Peter L. Steponkus Crystal Award in 1993 and in 2006. Dr. Karlsson earned his doctoral degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. Before coming to the United States, he lived in Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria. Dr. Karlsson was elected Secretary of the Society of Cryobiology for three consecutive terms in 2002-2007, and was appointed its Executive Secretary during 2005-2007. He has served the Society as its webmaster, and as a member of the Board of Governors, Executive Committee, Scientific Program Committee, Awards Committee, and Membership Committee. Dr. Karlsson is presently a member of the editorial board of Cryobiology. He is also a member of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers K‑17 Committee on Heat and Mass Transfer in Biotechnology, and is active in standards development for the ASTM International Committee on Tissue Engineered Medical Products.
Ta-Te Lin is currently Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering at the National Taiwan University. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University (1989) where he conducted research in the area of Drosophila embryo cryopreservation, under the guidance of Dr. Ron E. Pitt and Dr. Peter L. Steponkus. He has remained active in cryobiological research focusing on the engineering instrumentation, mathematical modeling, and experimentation to explore the biophysical mechanisms of freezing injury for cellular systems. His present research involves the development of the modular thermal-electric cooling (TEC) cryomicroscope system, as well as cryomicroscopic study of intracellular ice formation phenomena of artificial cells using microencapsulation technique. Dr. Lin has been a long-standing member for the Society for Cryobiology since 1989. His professional memberships also include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the America Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers serving on the IET-318 and IET-348 Technical Committees.
Professorial Fellow; School of Chemistry, Monash University, Victoria, Australia; Dr. MacFarlane's research areas cover the preparation and characterization of amorphous substances ranging from traditional aqueous solutions and inorganic glasses, to ionic liquids, to glassy polymers and to plastic crystals. Further topics: High temperature inorganic preparations, polymer preparative chemistry, conductivity, NMR, thermal analysis, electrochemical devices. He was involved in the first successful cryopreservation of cells by vitrification. Dr. MacFarlane has served as Treasurer of the Society for Cryobiology and as a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Cryobiology.
Dr. Mazur’s laboratory has been analyzing the involvement of these physical processes and forces in the survival or death of cryopreserved unfertilized eggs from mice, zebrafish, and the frog Xenopus, and cryopreserved yeast, and Chinese Hamster V79 and COS-7 tissue culture cells. In 1972, his group, then at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, became the first to successfully cryopreserve early mouse embryos. This led in rather quick succession to the successful preservation by others of cattle and then human embryos. The first has played a major role in the genetic improvement of livestock; the latter has played a major role in clinical assisted. Peter Mazur has served as a President of the Society for Cryobiology and is presently a member of the Board of Governors.
Ken Muldrew is currently Assistant Professor of Cell Biology & Anatomy at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His main research interests are in the mechanisms of cellular injury during freezing and thawing (particularly the mechanism of intracellular ice formation during rapid cooling and post-hypertonic lysis following slow cooling) and the improvement in techniques for cryopreservation and cryoablation. His principal focus for cryopreservation has been the development of techniques for preserving cellular viability in articular cartilage following freezing and thawing. Toward this end, his recent interest has been aimed at discovering the influence of tissue microstructure on ice growth and the consequent effects on the osmotic environment of the cells within the tissue. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1992.
Dr. Mullen completed doctoral and postdoctoral training in reproductive cryobiology at the University of Missouri - Columbia, where he focused his research on the fundamental cryobiology of mammalian oocytes. During his time as a graduate student, he was a visiting scholar at the Reproductive Medical Center at Shandong University, and the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, New Zealand. He also was the 2006 recipient of the Donald K. Anderson Award, the highest award conferred to graduate research fellows by the University of Missouri Graduate School. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 2001, and has attended the majority of CRYO meetings since that time. He served as director of the International Cryobiology Young Researchers group from 2004 to 2009. In this position he developed personal and professional relationships with numerous members of the Society for Cryobiology, from new students through Society Fellows. As ICYR director, he organized many special events at the CRYO meetings in an effort to promote interaction between senior members and newer members. Dr. Mullen is currently Head of the Reproductive Cryobiology laboratory at 21st Century Medicine, Inc, a position he has held for more than 2 years. He continues to conduct research in basic and applied cryobiology, focusing on the development of improved methods for preserving reproductive cells and tissues.
Professor Emeritus, Personal Chair University of York, York, UK; Dr. Pegg is particularly interested in the preservation of living cells at very low temperatures. Current projects include work on cornea, cartilage, blood vessels and cardiac valves. Involvement in studies of the cryobiology of tissue engineered graft materials increases. Much of his work is of a basic scientific nature (freezing injury that occur in different tissues) - but some is more closely related to immediate clinical needs arising in tissue banks, for example the effects of processing of bone grafts and dermal implants used in the treatment of extensive burns. Dr. Pegg is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Society for Cryobiology, has served as President in 1975-1976, and he served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cryobiology (1994-2011).
Yoed Rabin is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (affiliated since 1994). Previously, Dr. Rabin held primary affiliations with the Division of Surgical Oncology at Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA (1994-1996), the Department of Human Oncology at the Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Pittsburgh, PA (1996-1998), and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, Israel (1997-2000). Dr. Rabin has a broad range of research interests in the area of energy modalities in biology and medicine with current emphasis on cryosurgery, cryopreservation, thermal ablation, interstitial photodynamic therapy, irreversible electroporation, implantable sensors, and thermal regulation in biological systems. (March 2017)
Ursula Rauen is a Professor at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. After studying medicine in Duesseldorf, Germany, and Aberdeen, Scotland, she graduated from Duesseldorf University in 1991. From 1991 to 1992 she did her internship in the department of general surgery at the University of Tübingen, where she got involved in the research activities of the liver transplant group and, in collaboration with the Institute of Physiological Chemistry at Duesseldorf University, in a project on liver preservation injury. Since 1993, she has been working at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Essen (which later became the University of Duisburg-Essen), where the study of the intracellular mechanisms of hypothermia and preservation injury of mammalian cells, esp. of cell types relevant for transplantation medicine, but also of cells relevant for other clinical and biotechnological applications, became her major research interest. She became a member of the Society in 2000, served on the Board of Governors (2002-2004) and has served on the Editorial Boards of Cryobiology (since 2002) and CryoLetters (since 2004).
Dr. Barbara M. Reed is a Research Plant Physiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR and an adjunct professor at Oregon State University, Department of Horticulture. She received her Bachelor of Science in Education (1971) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Master of Science in Botany and Plant Pathology (1974) and Ph.D. in Botany (1977) at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Reed taught botany and biology classes at Oklahoma State University and at Oregon State University. She did postdoctoral study at the Oregon State University, Department of Horticulture, developing cryopreservation of clonally propagated plants. Dr. Reed has been a research scientist with USDA-ARS since 1989.The program goals of her research project encompass development of improved and broadly applicable methods for tissue culture of the temperate fruit, nut and specialty crop germplasm at the repository; development of low temperature or other slow-growth storage techniques for in vitro cultures; development of cryopreservation methods to facilitate the storage of clonal germplasm in liquid nitrogen; technology transfer of cryogenic techniques to other genetic resources labs; and evaluation of the genetic stability of in vitro-stored plants and cryopreserved meristems. Dr. Reed has authored or co-authored 130 publications with 70 in peer-reviewed journals, most of which are first author or with graduate students. She has also edited or co-edited two books, authored 13 book chapters, 19 proceedings papers, two theses, four handbooks of laboratory protocols, and six web-based educational tools. Dr. Reed developed in-vitro conservation methods and long-term storage techniques for plant genetic resources that are used worldwide. Since 1989 she has been invited to speak at 12 national and 20 international conferences and workshops, consulted with numerous university and industry scientists, advised eight M.S. and four Ph.D. students, and provided short-term training to over 40 visiting international scientists. Dr. Reed is a Fellow of the Society for In Vitro Biology. She is currently an Associate Editor for CryoLetters, In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant, and Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture and reviews for Cryobiology and several other journals. Dr. Reed has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1988. She was a co-chair for the 2011 Cryobiology meeting in Corvallis, OR.
Professor of Forensic Medicine at the New York University Medical Center and Adjunct Professor of Biology at SUNY, Binghamton, NY, USA. Dr. Rowe's main research interests have been in cryopreservation of formed elements of blood, primarily red cells, leukocytes, and platelets. He is currently involved in research on hemopoietic stem cells from cord blood, as well as in using animal models for the study of cryopreserved tissues and cells. Dr. Rowe was member of the Board of Governors of the Society for Cryobiology and was President in 1983-1984. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Cryobiology from 1972-1994.
Dr. Snyder is a Principal Scientist of Cell Preservation Services, Inc. (CPSI) and a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Technology (State University of New York). Dr. Snyder was a member of the local organizing committee for CRYO 2002, has served as a session chair at CRYO 2003 and CRYO 2008 and is a past-ICYR participant. She received her B.A. from Cornell University and Ph.D. from SUNY-Binghamton under the supervision of Dr. John G. Baust. Based on her research in both hypothermic preservation and cryotherapy in vitro modeling, Dr. Snyder has received honors including the Crystal Award (2003) and the Society for In Vitro Biology Hopps Award (2004). She has published numerous scientific and lay articles, abstracts and contributing book chapters in the field of low temperature biology and also serves as a reviewer for Biopreservation and Biobanking. Dr. Snyder’s primary research focus is in the area of cryotherapy for various disease states, including cardiac arrhythmias, prostate and breast cancer. At CPSI, Dr. Snyder supervises the technician and graduate student life science research training programs. In addition to serving as PI and research scientist on several NIH grants, she has also served as a NIH SBIR study section reviewer for cellular and molecular biology grants.
Dr. Nucharin Songsasen is a Gamete Biologist in the Department of Reproductive Sciences, Center for Species Survival, Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. She received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Kasetsart University, Thailand and M. Sc. and Ph.D. in the discipline of cryobiology at the University of Guelph, Canada under the guidance of Dr. Stanley Leibo. After receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Songsasen returned to Thailand and joined the Department of Livestock Development where she coordinated a large scale embryo transfer project. In 2000, Dr. Songsasen joined Dr. Leibo’s laboratory at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans, Louisiana. Two years later, she joined the Department of Reproductive Sciences at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center, in Front Royal, Virginia. At this institution, she leads a research program focused on reproductive and conservation biology of wild canids. Her research program integrates several biological disciplines, including cryobiology, reproductive biology, endocrinology, developmental biology, molecular biology, veterinary medicine and conservation biology. During the past 15 years, Dr. Songsasen has focused her research on cryopreservation of mammalian gametes and embryos and has had several achievements in term of the first “live young” produced by frozen cells. Her doctoral research was the first successful report in North America of the birth of live mice resulting from IVF with cryopreserved spermatozoa. Dr. Songsasen has been a long time member of the Society for Cryobiology and has attended and presented her research results in several Annual Meetings. To date, she has supervised 2 undergraduate and 10 graduate students, and has authored/co-authored 23 manuscripts in peered reviewed journals, several of which described studies in gamete and embryo cryopreservation in a wide-range of mammalian species, including, the sheep, mouse, swamp buffalo, cattle, rhesus monkey and domestic dog. Dr. Songsasen serves on the editorial board of Theriogenology journal and is the Reproductive Advisor to the Maned Wolf Species Survival Plan and Canid Taxon Advisory Group of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium. During the past several years, she has served as an ad hoc reviewer for several peered reviewed journals, including Cryobiology.
Dr. Sputtek is a research scientist and a specialist in transfusion medicine in the Institute for Transfusion Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany. He has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology since 1991, where he has served on the Board of Governors (Treasurer 1996-1997, Chair Finance Committee 1998-2003, President-Elect 2004-2005, President 2006-2007, Past President, 2008-2009, Secretary 2011-2011). He organized the annual meeting of this Society CRYO 2006 in Hamburg. Dr. Sputtek has served on the Editorial Boards of Cryobiology (since 1996), for CryoLetters (since 2001) for Biopreservation and Biobanking (since 2002), and for Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy (since 2006). He is currently a member of the Society for Low Temperature Biology, the International Institute of Refrigeration, and of the German Society for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology. He has served on the Committee of the Society for Low Temperature Biology (1996-2003) and as Chairman (2004-2005). His research interests focus on physicochemical properties and mechanisms of action of cryoprotectants, especially non-penetrating carbohydrates like hydroxyethyl starch. His special interest has been in the development and improvement of cryopreservation techniques for a variety of blood cells (peripheral blood stem cell progenitors, erythrocytes, thrombocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes) and hepatocytes for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
Dr. Michael J. Taylor is currently Vice President of Research and Development for Cell and Tissue Systems, Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina and Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Prior to joining a partner company, Organ Recovery Systems in 1998, he was Director of the Cryobiology and Hypothermic Medicine Program at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Pittsburgh from 1992, and Senior Scientist with the Medical Research Council at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom before that. Dr. Taylor’s research interests during more than 35 years in both the academic and corporate arenas have included: applications of low temperature in medicine and surgery; in vitro preservation of transplantable tissues; prevention of ischemic injury in vivo, with emphasis on hypothermic neuroprotection and myocardial preservation; mechanisms of cryoinjury in multicellular tissues with an emphasis on the development of ice-free methods of cryopreservation. These research activities have culminated in the publication of more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and patents in the field of low temperature biology and medicine. He has also served multiple terms on the Board of Governors for the Society for Cryobiology, in the capacity as Governor between 1984 and 2004, and as secretary (1989-94) and treasurer (1998-2000) and is a member of the editorial boards of the three major journals in the field of cryobiology. Dr. Taylor was a co-organizer of the 1983 Society meeting in Cambridge, and organizer of CRYO’ 98 in Pittsburgh. He has been a frequent organizer of workshops and symposia at numerous other meetings of this and other related Societies. His standing in the field was recognized by his election as a Fellow of the Society for Cryobiology in July 2010. During the past 10 years Dr. Taylor has held other academic positions including Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina in addition to being Vice President for Research and Development, for two companies: Organ Recovery Systems, and currently Cell and Tissue Systems. As specialists in cell, tissue, and organ preservation, these companies are leading contributors to the field of Transplantation, Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering. The science of biopreservation is a specialized field critically important for the supply of viable products for transplantation. A principal focus of his Company’s research has been the development of technologies aimed at developing both devices and solutions for improved supply of viable organs for transplantation. Dr. Taylor’s work with these companies included important contributions to the development of ORS's LifePort Kidney Transporter, their proprietary Preservation Solutions including KPS1 and Unisol®, and the Company's technology portfolio. The LifePort Kidney Transporter and KPS-1 are cleared by the USFDA, CE marked, and marketed world-wide. Dr. Taylor has contributed to the development of several other marketed products including HypoThermosol® and PolarCath marketed by Biolife Solutions and Boston Scientific, respectively.
Dr. Thirumala received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. His graduate research was performed under the supervision of Professor Ram Devireddy and co-supervision of Professor Jeffrey M. Gimble and submitted his dissertation titled: “Cryopreservation of adipose derived adult stem cells and multidimensional stem cell sheets” in year 2009. While formally trained in Mechanical Engineering, he has a broad background in a wide variety of biological phenomenon at low temperature including systematic optimization of freezing methods and protocol using numerical simulations and cell biophysical tests. His doctoral research work include theoretical and experimental investigation of optimal cryopreservation processes, conservation of endangered species using biopreservation techniques and design and development of non-toxic, non-serum high molecular weight cryoprotective agents alternate to routinely used DMSO for clinical applications. In addition to his work in low temperature biology, Dr. Thirumala maintains a fervent interest in stem cell tissue engineering and bioprocessing technology. Dr. Thirumala is currently (2012) working as a Research Scientist at Cook General Biotechnology LLC (CGBT), a company devoted to the development of methods and devices to give cells and tissues shelf life through cryopreservation. His research involves multi-disciplinary elements of cryobiology and stem cell tissue engineering. Since beginning his position at CGBT, he has been instrumental and has contributed to the design of new methods and procedures for the long-term aseptic banking of a number of cell types used in clinical therapy. He has accomplished original research in biopreservation, as well as published over 33 peer reviewed articles.
Professor of Surgery, Shriners Hospital for Children, Boston, MA, USA. His research interests focus on three general areas: (1) the heat shock response and repair of thermal damage to cells, (2) muscle wasting in burn trauma, and (3) critical technologies in tissue engineering. Thermal injury is based on the observation that hyperthermia leads to the induction of a class of proteins called heat shock proteins (HSPs), which protect cells. He is interested in "engineered" hepatic tissue containing both parenchymal and mesenchymal cells and developing cryopreservation techniques for engineered tissues (skin and liver) for clinical purposes. Dr. Toner served as President of the Society for Cryobiology and is an Associate Editor of the journal Cryobiology.
Matsuo Uemura is currently a Professor, Division of Cold-Adaptation Biology, Cryobiofrontier Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Japan. He has been serving as a member of the Iwate University Research Council since 2006. He moved to the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, where he received M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1984) with professional guidance by Profs. Akira Sakai and Shizuo Yoshida in plant cryobiology. He joined in Peter Steponkus’ lab at Cornell University in 1986 as a JSPS Postdoctral Fellow and worked with Peter until he decided to come back to Japan as a Professor at Iwate University in 1999. He has been a member of the Society of Cryobiology since 1987, was in the organizing committee of the Cryo 1992 (Ithaca, NY, USA), and will be a Co-Chair with Prof. Seizo Fujikawa of the Cryo 2009 (Sapporo, Japan). He is currently on the Editorial Board of the Cryobiology journal. Other professional societies he belongs include the American Society of Plant Biologists, the Japanese Society of Cryobiology and Cryotechnology (currently President-Elect), the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists and the Botanical Society of Japan. His research interest includes the membrane participation in plant cold acclimation and freezing injury and the molecular and physiological elucidation of adaptation processes to low temperatures in plants.
Dr. Wolkers received his education at Wageningen University & Research centre (MSc, Molecular Sciences, 1992, Ph.D. 1998), after which he did postdoctoral research at the Center for Biostabilization, University of California, Davis. He was appointed as research assistant professor at the department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota in 2006 and recently (2007) became leader of a professorship ´Biomedical Process Technology´ at the Institute of Multiphase Processes, Leibniz University of Hannover, within the cluster of excellence ´From Regenerative Biology to Reconstructive Therapy´ REBIRTH. His research interests include anhydrobiosis, freezing tolerance, membrane biophysics, protein structure and stability. He did a lot of in situ FTIR spectroscopy to study membranes and proteins in a wide variety of anhydrous and frozen biological systems.
Dr. Woods received his BA in Biology from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He then went on to study cryobiology at the Hillenbrand Center for Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN where he earned his PhD developing methods of cryopreservation of encapsulated human and canine pancreatic islets. Dr. Woods then completed a Post Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN, developing enhanced methods of umbilical cord blood stem cell cryopreservation. In 1997 Dr. Woods co-founded General BioTechnology LLC (GBT), an R&D company devoted to the development of methods and devices to give cells and tissues shelf life through cryopreservation. This company has gone on to form several successful spin offs in the Cell Therapy space involved in devices as well as cell and tissue banking, manufacture and logistics which Dr. Woods also runs. In addition to his administrative role, as a board certified High Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD) he also serves operations in this capacity. Dr. Woods has actively continued research in cryobiology and contributes academically as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Additionally, he has been awarded numerous scientific grants through the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the State of Indiana. Dr. Woods holds several patents related to cryopreservation, and has published numerous scientific articles, reviews and book chapters in the field. Dr. Woods has been a member of the Society for Cryobiology over 15 years, and has served on the Board of Governors since 2005 and has been Elected as President-Ele(2012-2013). He also participates in several Society committees including the (ad hoc) Best Practices in Cryopreservation Committee, the Finance Committee, the Program Committee, and the Student Awards Committee, which he has also chaired for the last four years. Dr. Woods is also intimately involved with several other societies including the International Society for Cell Therapy (ISCT), the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) and the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) in which he sits on the Reproductive Council.
Dr. Zhang is the Head of Graduate School at Bournemouth University, UK and a Professor of Cryobiology. Her current research is in the areas of cryopreservation of fish embryos, gametes, ovarian tissues and cells including stem cells, and the effect of cryopreservation on genome integrity and cellular metabolism. Dr.Zhang graduated from Liaoning University and worked as a research scientist in the areas of Environmental Biology for 5 years (P. R. China) before obtaining MPhil degree in Environmental Biology at Middlesex University and PhD degree in Cryobiology at University of Bedfordshire (UK). She worked as a post-doctoral research fellow and a senior research fellow at University of Bedfordshire before she was made Reader in 2003 and Professor in 2005. She was appointed as the Director of LIRANS Institute of Research in the Applied Natural Sciences at University of Bedfordshire in 2008 and Head of the Graduate School at Bournemouth University in 2012. LIRANS’ cryobiology research along with other research activities were recognized in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) as being at international and world leading levels. The major grants she have obtained included 'Development of technologies for cryopreservation of fish oocytes' (funded by the EU) and 'Investigation of new approaches to the cryopreservation of fish embryos' (funded by The Wellcome Trust). Tiantian has been a member of Society for Cryobiology since 1992 and a member of Society for Low Temperature Biology since 1993. She was the Chairman (2005-2008), General Secretary (1997-1999) and the Treasurer (2001-2004) of the Society for Low Temperature Biology. She has been an Associate Editor of CryoLetters and is on editorial board of Journal of Animal Reproduction Science. She is also a referee of Journals of Biology of Reproduction, Theriogenology, Cryobiology, Aquaculture Research, Journal of Zoology, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Aquaculture, Animal: An International Journal of Animal Bioscience. She has supervised 25 PhD students (currently supervising 6 PhD students as Director of Studies) and examined 10 research degrees. She has also led the development of MSc Cryobiology and MSc Biotechnology courses at University of Bedfordshire and Master by Research and Professional Doctorates Degrees at Bournemouth University.