Preservation of living cells, for storage as a supply for immunotherapy applications, uses freezing to supercooling in a vacuum chamber together with adsorption of a solid adsorbent

摘要

Providing a stock of dried living cells comprising freezing the cells (4) in a vacuum chamber (1) combined with adsorption by a solid adsorbent (16) e.g. zeolite, is new. Providing a stock of dried living cells comprising freezing the cells (4) in a vacuum chamber (1) combined with adsorption by a solid adsorbent (16) e.g. zeolite. The cell temperature is reduced until supercooling occurs. When the cells are required, they are thawed to ambient temperatures. A thermocouple (24) registers the cell temperatures, with signals to a control unit (23) which sets the positions of the valves (7,8,14) and the operation of the vacuum pump (12).