Lyophilization of human blood and stem cells - New methods of long term preservation for space travel and terrestrial applications

Exploration missions beyond Earth orbit are associated with a maximum autonomy of the crew with regard to medical support and treatment. This raises the compelling question of safe and robust storage methods for cellular blood products at the lowest possible mass and energy budget. Lyophilization of human cells could represent a milestone in the preservation of primary cells for space medicine. It was carried out successfully in 2009 for the first time for hematopoietic cells and would allow long-term storage and transportation of cellular blood products and hematopoietic stem cells without any freezing systems. Lyophilized cells stored at ambient temperature would provide economic and practical advantages over approaches employing cell freezing and subzero temperature storage.