John Bischof, PhD
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
CryoMesh vitrification platform
Stopping biological time.
NorthStar Cryo develops CryoMesh, an ice-free cryopreservation platform that lets pancreatic islets and other complex cell clusters be banked, tested, and used on demand.
A spinout of the University of Minnesota and ATP-Bio.
The problem
Today, islets must be used fresh.
Islet transplantation is an approved therapy for people with severe type 1 diabetes. Without a practical way to store islets, few patients receive it.
One donor at a time
A single donor often yields too few islets, and fresh islets cannot be pooled across donors.
No time to test
Fresh islets must be transplanted before full quality and safety testing can be completed.
No way to bank batches
Large production batches of stem cell-derived islets cannot be stored for later use.
Procedures on the clock
Transplants are scheduled around islet availability rather than patient readiness.
The solution
Glass, not ice.
CryoMesh holds islets on a thin, thermally conductive mesh and removes excess cryoprotectant, so they cool and rewarm fast enough to vitrify: they solidify into a glass-like state instead of forming damaging ice.
01
Preserve
Islets are loaded with cryoprotectant, spread on CryoMesh, and vitrified by rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen.
02
Store
Vitrified islets are held at cryogenic temperature, leaving time for testing, pooling, matching, and distribution.
03
Recover
Rapid rewarming and cryoprotectant removal return islets ready for culture or transplantation.
Results so far
Applications
One platform, from islets to organoids.
Islets are our lead program. The same approach applies to other multicellular materials that conventional freezing damages.
Lead program
Pancreatic islets
Banked, quality-tested islets for transplantation and for stem cell-derived islet therapies.
Learn more Research stagePrecision-cut tissue slices
Preserving native tissue architecture for drug testing and disease research.
Learn more Research stageOrganoids and spheroids
On-demand supply of complex 3D cell models for regenerative medicine and drug development.
Learn more Research stageOther cell clusters
An extensible platform for other multicellular biological materials.
Learn moreScience
Built on a decade of research.
CryoMesh comes from more than a decade of cryobiology and heat transfer research at the University of Minnesota.
- bioRxiv, 2026Preprint
Clinical-grade cryopreservation unlocks transplant-ready human pancreatic and stem cell-derived islets for diabetes therapy
Rao JS, Guo Z, Khashim Z, et al.; Etheridge ML, Bischof JC, Finger EB
CryoMesh preserves human and stem cell-derived islets at clinical scale; human islets stored up to one year restored normoglycemia in diabetic mice.
- Nature Medicine 28:798-808, 2022
Pancreatic islet cryopreservation by vitrification achieves high viability, function, recovery and clinical scalability for transplantation
Zhan L, Rao JS, Sethia N, et al.; Etheridge M, Peterson QP, Dutcher CS, Bischof JC, Finger EB
The foundational CryoMesh study: vitrification of mouse, porcine, human, and stem cell-derived islets with high viability, recovery, and function.
Founders
Engineers and surgeons, working together.
NorthStar Cryo was founded by the Finger and Bischof laboratories and lead engineer Michael Etheridge to bring CryoMesh from the University of Minnesota and ATP-Bio into clinical use.
Erik Finger, MD, PhD
Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer
Michael Etheridge, PhD
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
Collaborate
Partner with us
We work with developers of islet and cell-based therapies to evaluate CryoMesh in their programs. Major pharmaceutical companies are evaluating CryoMesh.