Assess whether engineered ice-binding proteins can reduce preservation loss, limit freeze-thaw degradation, and protect the integrity of critical research, diagnostic, and archived biological samples.
Cryopreservation underpins modern biobanking by enabling primary cells, rare tissues, diagnostic materials, and other valuable biological samples to be archived for long periods. However, frozen storage does not necessarily mean perfect long-term stability.
Freezer access, rack transfer, transport events, and other handling steps can introduce transient temperature excursions. These small fluctuations may be enough to support ice recrystallisation, where smaller ice crystals gradually fuse into larger, more damaging structures that disrupt membranes, tissue architecture, and downstream sample quality over time.
For biobank managers, diagnostic teams, and researchers, this hidden degradation can translate into weaker downstream assays, compromised reproducibility, and the avoidable loss of rare or expensive biological assets.
IBP Ventures evaluates ice-binding proteins that act directly at the ice-water interface, with the aim of reducing the slow cumulative damage associated with storage fluctuations and thaw.
The real value of a biobank lies not only in the number of samples stored, but in the quality, interpretability, and recoverability of those samples when they are used. Even a small degree of cumulative degradation can reduce confidence in downstream assays, affect diagnostic interpretation, or weaken the value of a rare cohort.
Improving cryopreservation performance is therefore not just about storage conditions. It is about preserving the long-term usefulness of biological material as a dependable research, clinical, or commercial resource.
IBP Ventures offers defined feasibility pilots to assess whether ice-binding proteins can integrate into and improve specific biobanking, research preservation, or diagnostic storage workflows.
In biobanking and research preservation, the value of a stored sample depends on what can still be measured, recovered, or interpreted when that sample is eventually used. Freeze-thaw damage, structural disruption, or cumulative storage-related decline can reduce confidence in downstream assays and compromise the long-term value of archived material.
For facilities managing rare, expensive, or clinically important material, even modest improvements in stability, recovery, or consistency may have significant research and operational value.
The purpose of a feasibility pilot is to determine whether the ice-binding protein approach merits further work in a defined preservation workflow before broader implementation.
While this page focuses on biobanking and research preservation, the same underlying challenge of freeze damage, recrystallisation, and post-thaw recovery also appears across other high-value biological systems.
Sample storage workflows where reduced preservation loss and improved long-term consistency may be valuable.
Sensitive therapeutic cells and formulations where freeze-thaw recovery, viability, and handling robustness are commercially important.
Embryo and oocyte cryopreservation where post-thaw survival and warming-stage damage are critical constraints.
Are you encountering preservation loss, poor downstream assay performance, or storage-related instability in your biobank or core facility?
We offer tightly scoped feasibility pilots to evaluate whether ice-binding proteins can improve sample integrity and long-term stability in your specific preservation workflow.