A few years ago, we set out to provide the best cryopreservation quality in the world. And then never stop improving.
Each year in January we present and publish the quality data from the prior year (keep an eye out for the invite, which will go out in the coming weeks). But being the best in relative terms means nothing. There is just one thing that matters: is the preservation quality above the threshold needed to allow for future revival? Unfortunately, and obviously, we don’t know where exactly that threshold is. For now, the only prudent choice is to push to get better! Every day, every week and month, and every year! I hope I’m wrong, but I imagine this will be the situation for quite some time.
Here’s what we will focus on in 2026 to improve quality. From now on, we will publish two plans at the end of each year, one focused on quality improvement and one about everything else that will be new at Tomorrow Bio in the coming year.
Logistics
Human Cryopreservation is in large part a logistics challenge. Our members can die at any time, anywhere. It is crucial to start the procedures without delay, and at the same time the absolute number of people who sign up is still low. Whatever you do, logistics will be a major topic for the foreseeable future.
For that reason, we started out only accepting signups in Europe to keep our membership concentrated and be able to provide faster response times. Since recently we also accept signups in the US. Of course, we cover all our members globally, so once you’ve signed up, we cover you! Regardless of you moving or being on vacation.
For 2026, we will continue to focus on Europe and the US and only opportunistically start building teams in other locations.
Europe
We’re pretty well set up in Europe by now. Our two-tiered model of standby or pre-deploy-and-fly is working out quite well. When one of our members is at risk, we choose one of three options:
At risk, but no immediate risk of death → comprehensive remote monitoring
Terminal condition, high risk but timing unclear → “Pre-deploy-and-fly” means we pre-position an ambulance and CPA at the member’s location, which allows the team to fly in without delay or complex logistics.
High to immediate risk → deploy team on standby with ambulance, team, and CPA
In 2026 we will expand coverage in Europe with the first local support team coming online. Stay tuned for specific announcements.
US
Just as much as Europe, the US is at the center of attention of our SST coverage expansion. In 2026 we will finalize the harmonization of standards so that our whole coverage network uses the same equipment and procedures. While the differences are not big, any small difference might add up, and it’s important to ensure that we deliver the same high preservation quality that we have shown over the last years in Europe. Furthermore, it simplifies training and makes the implementation of improvements easier.
Last but not least, we will also add more teams, some with partners, some built out by us. We will announce those partnerships soon.
Procedures
For a while now, we have had a standardized protocol that we train extensively and that leads to good results (see below). But as said, we never want to stop pushing to get better.
We will to focus on four things in 2026:
Hopefully, 2026 is finally the year we can add Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) Modifiers to the washout solution to reduce or avoid the typical brain shrinkage seen in low ischemia cases.
Fast cooling to avoid ischemia is and will always be something to work and improve on. We plan to combine all cooling methodologies we’ve tested in the past and hopefully increase average cooling rates by a relevant amount.
We plan to trial and, if successful, implement a few advanced techniques. One example would be multi-point cannulation (e.g., ascending and abdominal aorta) to better perfuse the brain and the rest of the body. Another would be starting washout via femoral cannulation while chest compression and initial stabilization are still running for much faster initial cooling rates and therefore reduced ischemia. All of these things add complexity, but we think that we’re at a level of procedural competency that allows it.
Lastly, we will continue to have perfusion in non-ideal cases as a priority.
Quality of Preservation
Preservation quality is the most important metric for us, bar none. If you want to compare cryopreservation providers, do so by looking at quality first.
Computed Tomography
For now, the main post-preservation quality metric is CT scanning. Every person cryopreserved by Tomorrow Bio is CT scanned at -196°C directly before going into long-term cryostasis; this will continue to be the case. We color-code those CT scans to represent how well the CPA has penetrated the tissue, from areas with full-strength CPA suppressing ice crystal formation (in green), to areas with low CPA (in red) concentration or ice (in blue).
While we have not seen better CT scan results anywhere, we still have things to improve. Expect improvements to the interpretation/CLUT process, whole-body scans, meta-analysis (e.g., 2025 vs. 2026 comparison), and, of course, better average perfusion quality.
Ultrastructure
As far as preservation quality goes, good CT scans are a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. That means the quality of a preservation can’t be good without a good CT scan, but a good CT scan does not necessarily mean good preservation. This is especially true in immersion vitrifixation cases.
While we still plan to improve our CT scan results, there isn’t that much to do anymore. Due to that, we’ve started to move on to include an ultrastructural preservation metric.
Ultrastructure means the fine structure, the architecture of a cell made visible by an electron microscope at high magnification. As much as we understand today, it visualizes the things that make you, you and me, me. Personally, memories, identity, and everything we value and care about is encoded in the ultrastructure. It is critical that it is well preserved.
For a while now, we have collected consent from our new (and starting also from existing) members to be allowed to take microsamples of the brain and/or spinal column for ultrastructural analysis. In 2026 we will present the first results.
Going forward, the quality of the ultrastructure will be our most important criterion for decision-making.
Keep an eye out for all the upcoming announcements and webinars. Of course, we’ll go into much more detail for each
.
It’s really nice to see this list of goals for 2026, and it reassures me about my decision to sign up with Tomorrow Biostasis/EBF. Overall, here’s what I think about these announcements.
In terms of logistics, I believe the situation in Europe is already very well handled, with what I consider to be the most advanced new generation of standby ambulances in the world. The U.S. coverage seems somewhat weaker for now, but I think they’ll soon reach a similar level of readiness as in Europe. It might also be interesting in the future to deploy equipment and train teams in Australia. The issue of an unsupervised member’s sudden cardiac arrest will, unfortunately, always exist, but I believe that a good alert and monitoring app combined with a smart watch could greatly improve the odds in such scenarios, even though they’ll never be ideal.
The blood brain barrier modifiers were honestly the news I’d been dreaming of hearing from Emil. CryoDAO recently ran experiments on rabbit brains, if I remember correctly, using blue dye to demonstrate the difference between samples with and without blood brain barrier modification. The results are absolutely stunning, and they have the potential to greatly improve the quality of cerebral vitrification. Perhaps with these blood–brain barrier modifiers, we’ll take another big step forward in preservation quality, similar to when vitrification replaced high-molarity glycerolization in the early 2000s. Who knows? I certainly hope so!
It’s obviously great to have a much faster induction of hypothermia to improve preservation quality. Using ice water and ice in a PIB with a submersible pump and a cooling mask already provides good results, but I also think this can be improved. Mike Darwin presented a lot of interesting cooling methods in his Chronosphere articles; I believe that internal gastric and rectal cooling could be useful. In my opinion, the most effective method currently available is liquid ventilation of the lungs. That would be a significant step forward and is extremely important in my view.
Starting perfusion and femoral cannulation simultaneously with chest compressions is obviously much better than stopping the LUCAS device first, and I expect experimental results to reflect that improvement.
Finally, assessing the ultrastructure of preserved cells in different organs, especially the brain, is a central goal, as it’s key to demonstrating that Tomorrow Biostasis’ procedures should, at least in principle, preserve the neuroanatomical basis of memory, personality, and thus a patient’s personal identity. Performing biopsies is therefore an excellent approach. If possible, I would personally include a clause in my contract requesting that a small brain biopsy be performed on me. Given the extreme redundancy of memory storage in the human brain, that shouldn’t pose any problem for my reanimation from an informational standpoint.