Frozen frogs may hold key
to freezing human organs
By Alicia Malone

OTTAWA — Freezing human donor organs so they can be used at a later time may be on the horizon.

Ken Storey, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Physiology, says that he expects to see the cryogenic freezing of human organs within his lifetime.

The ability to freeze and store donor organs would be a large step forward in the medical field. It would allow doctors to keep donated organs for longer than their current short window of usability, potentially allowing more organs to be transplanted.

The research Storey does at Carleton University in Ottawa, however, is not on humans. Instead he studies animals that have the ability to shut themselves down, either in extreme cold or through dehydration.

He describes his work as trying "to discover how animals work."

Shifting around papers in his overcrowded office, part of the whole floor his labs take up, he explains where his level of research falls in the history of research.

Storey says he sees molecular biology as a progression from the work done by natural scientists like Darwin. He says they observed the animal as a whole. Then came physiology where specific parts of animals are studied, heart rates and organ temperatures for example.

Molecular biology he says is the next step where scientists look at cells and molecules and how they function within the animals.

The science of freezing

How the cells work is what fascinates him Storey says.

His research concentrates on animals that are able to stop cell function and be revived again without harm.

Story's lab researches two different forms of this suspended animation: frogs that freeze solid during the winter and thaw out in the spring as well as toads that live in the desert and dry out and are reanimated during the occasional rains.

His main concentration has been on cold weather suspended animation. The frogs that freeze during the winter are able to do so because they have developed ways to control their freezing.

The frogs have anti-freeze proteins that allow them to control the rate at which their body freezes. The frogs freeze slowly from the outside in so that they can keep the freezing extra-cellular. That means everything around the cell is frozen but the inside of the cell remains unfrozen.

This is necessary because freezing a cell causes a lot of damage.By ensuring the cells stay unfrozen the frogs are able to mainatain a state of about 70 per cent ice during the winter and survive.

Whatever the trigger for the suspended animation though, Storey says the processes in the cell that allow for it are the same. It is because of this universality that Story says he believes it will be possible for the process to be transferred to humans.

Popsicle people?

"Can we freeze grandma?" he asks with a smile, no he says, not yet.

He says that one day the science will be there to allow us to freeze whole people and thaw them out at later, but whether or not that actually happens will be up to the policy makers, not the scientists.

"It won’t happen in my life though," he says. And so he concentrates his studies on how it works on a molecular level while other researchers consistently cite his work as a basis for their studies into humans applications.

Storey acknowledges that his work is frequently cited but brushes off the accomplishment saying he only even got into the field because it was the easiest thing for him to do.

"There was no heavy lifting, no outside work and no big guys who could break my thumbs," he says.

After 30 years studying suspended animation Storey says he’s pleased with the progress he’s made.

"You do what’s easier for you, but harder for others," he says.

It may be what’s easier for him, but Storey says he’s glad he’s been able to do this with his life, he says the interest for him is still just trying to understand how nature works.