The principle of cryopreservation could be as simple as that of food refrigeration: low temperatures limit the rate of chemical reactions that damage cells and tissues so that they enter a stage of slowed-down or suspended animation.

Nowadays, slow-freezing and vitrification (solid-like, non-crystalline, glass transition) are the two mainstay approaches for cryopreservation. However, there are still a number of barriers to such successful efforts, such as intracellular ice formation during freezing and ice recrystallization during thawing, cryoprotectant toxicity especially for vitrification, cell volume excursion, chilling injury, post-thaw apoptosis, etc. Underlying cryopreservation is an entire complex of physical, chemical, and biological processes.

My research interests concentrate around the understanding of the biophysical phenomena, both macroscopic and microscopic, occurring in cryopreservation, including thermodynamics of phase changes (ice formation and glass transition), mass (solute and water) transfer (across cell membranes), as well as material properties of cryoprotective formulations. Application-wise, I am also working on establishing biopreservation methods for biologics of urgent necessity for the research communities.

A promising alternative to cryopreservation is dry preservation or lyo-preservation. Inspired by anhydrobiosis in nature, researchers are isothermally (at ambient temperatures) desiccating/vitrifying biologics in the presence of lyo-protectants such as amino acids and sugars that are typically accumulated in a great amount in extreme condition-survivors such as tardigrades (water bears). Another avenue of my research is exploring novel salt additives that can improve the performance of lyo-protective formulations.