21st Century Medicine

21st Century Medicine (21CM) is an American for-profit cryobiological research company that has as its primary focus the development of perfusates and protocols for viable long-term cryopreservation of mammalian and human organs, tissues and cells through the use of vitrification. With its research laboratories in Fontana, California, 21CM was founded in 1993.

21CM developed cryoprotectants B1C, B2C, and M22 that the Alcor Life Extension Foundation has used in vitrification of cryonics patients. People employed at 21CM include or included Greg Fahy, Robert McIntyre, and Brian Wowk.

History
In 2004, 21CM received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study a preservation solution developed by the University of Rochester in New York for extending simple cold storage time of human hearts removed for transplant.

At the July 2005 annual conference of the Society for Cryobiology, 21CM announced the vitrification of a rabbit kidney to −135 °C with their vitrification mixture. The kidney was successfully transplanted upon rewarming to a rabbit, the rabbit being euthanized on the 48th day for histological follow-up.

On February 9, 2016, 21CM won the Brain Preservation Foundation's Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize. On March 13, 2018, 21CM won the Large Mammal Brain Preservation Prize. Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation was used in both cases.