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Find out how our 2021 was and what plans we have for this year!
2021 was a sensational year for Tomorrow Biostasis. I really want to thank all our members for their helpfulness and all our employees for their hard work and dedication to the topic. We had three big goals for the year: expand medical infrastructure to cover DACH, grow membership, and last but not least raise funds. Here is a brief summary of what happened this year and what we plan to achieve in 2022!
Just over a year ago, after setting up the required medical infrastructure, we officially opened our doors and allowed the first members to sign up. Initially, 1–2 new members signed up per month. Now, we’re the fastest-growing cryopreservation provider worldwide with the most members in DACH. To note: we only offer whole-body cryopreservation, with full SST (standby, stabilization, transport), strict informed consent required, and only accept members in Europe.
In 2022 we plan to continue that trend and reach members in the mid-3-figures at the end of the year to then hit 4-figures in 2023.
The core medical infrastructure was set up by January 2021. We only launched once cryopreservation coverage was possible. Nevertheless, just as with R&D, improving infrastructure never stops. In 2021 we added a new perfusion system, better monitoring tools, training dummies, flight kits, and much more.
In 2022, we will add an additional SST team at the facility close to Zurich, Switzerland, a “Fast Response Vehicle”, 2nd gen perfusion system, and several procedure improvements. We also plan to train, support and collaborate with local teams throughout Europe to better cover regions that are not in the direct vicinity of our infrastructure (please reach out if you represent a local community).
As explained in more depth in our research roadmap, our primary focus is on development rather than basic research. This will change over time but in 2022 it is still very much the case.
In 2021 we’ve decided that ischemia will be our first target. Ischemia is one (if not the) most important factor that determines the quality of a cryopreservation. More ischemia means more edema, which means worse perfusion leading to a lower quality preservation. In 2022, we will continue to work both to reduce ischemic time with better processes and procedures as well as develop CPA variants that make ischemia less of an issue. Other topics will be ITS, new perfusion system and setting up intramural research capabilities at the Swiss facility.
While not directly done by Tomorrow, one of the milestones in Europe is the grand opening of the first European Long-term Care Facility. Tomorrow will primarily work with EBF, the non-profit foundation running the facility in Switzerland for the secure long-term cryopreservation storage of its patients. The facility will open in the next few months in Switzerland. Apart from long-term care it will also include a Medical Imaging Facility for quality control, labs for translational, applied, and basic research, office space, and much more.
We’ll announce the date of the opening event soon, stay tuned for mid-2022.
In 2021 we learned the fundamentals — how to explain Biostasis comprehensively, how to make sure that interested people have enough information to make an informed decision, which questions are asked the most, and much more.
Improving communication is going to be a big part of our 2022 activities as well. There are still a tremendous amount of people interested in the topic, who are not aware that this is a tangible option at all, or not aware that it’s possible in Europe. Providing trustworthy information to more people in Europe is our goal for 2022. Importantly, we will offer information in their native languages. Cryopreservation is a complex topic and informed consent is paramount. Native content is an important piece of the puzzle.
In 2021 we’ve filled all positions needed to offer high-quality cryopreservations, handle the day to day of member contracts and support, improve the technology and run the organization in a responsible way. In 2022 we’ll add a layer of senior people to grow the organization further, a full-time surgeon will join to grow and professionalize our SST teams and we’ll add several engineers.
More team members will join over the year to help fulfill Tomorrow’s mission. If you’re interested, reach out.
While hosted by EBF the annual Biostasis conference series is an important event for Tomorrow as well. In 2021 a large part of our team participated and helped out to run the conference. With 100+ on-site and Switzerland and 1000+ online it was a highly valuable event to bring the Biostasis research community together. We’re very much looking forward to seeing everybody again in 2022.
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