Grounds for winning the 2014 Young Scientist Award of the Japanese Society
for Cryobiology and Cryotechnology
Development of novel polymeric cryoprotectants and their applications
By Dr. Kazuaki Matsumura (Associate Professor, School of Materials Science, Japan
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

Dr. Kazuaki Matsumura is an associate professor at Japan Advanced Institute ofScience and Technology (JAIST), Japan. He graduated from Kyoto University in 1998
and received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 2004. After that, he worked as aresearcher at Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and his first faculty position
was as an assistant professor in Kyoto University, and he then went on to become an
associate professor at JAIST in 2011.
Dr. Matsumura made a great effort to develop novel polymeric cryoprotectants withhis expertise in polymer chemistry. His research mainly revolved around thedevelopment of novel cryoprotectants and elucidation of their mechanisms andbiomedical applications.
Cryopreservation of living cells is now indispensable in biological, medical, andagricultural research fields and in the clinical practice of reproductive medicine. It iscommon knowledge that cryoprotective agents such as glycerol and dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) solutions have been used for the cryopreservation of sperm and red blood cells
because they protect them from freezing damage. However, DMSO shows highcytotoxicity and affects the differentiation of some type of cells. Thus, there is a pressing
need for the development of high efficiency and low toxicity cryoprotectants.
He synthesized partially carboxylated poly-L-lysine and discovered its cryoprotective

property. This interesting phenomenon is characteristic of polymers with high electron
charge, especially polyampholytes. Successful cryopreservation of many cell types,
including human mesenchymal stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, hasbeen achieved. Additionally, he developed synthetic polymeric cryoprotectants using
controlled polymerization technique and found that the cryoprotective property
improved upon the introduction of hydrophobic residues.
He proposed that polyampholytes exert their cytoprotective action by protecting cells
against stresses such as drastic changes in soluble space size and osmotic pressureduring freezing by using solid-state NMR.
He developed a novel cell-sheet cryopreservation method by using polyampholyte.
Cryopreservation of cell-containing constructs is in high demand in the field of tissue
engineering

todevelop

tissue-engineered

products‘‘off-the-shelf’’.

Thisfacilepreservation technique will open new avenues for truly industrial application oftissue-engineered constructs.
He aimed to apply these novel results to the biomedical field. For example, byhydrogelation of polyampholytes, he tried to develop the cell scaffolds withcryoprotective property for tissue engineering and he discovered novel protein delivery
method by using freeze concentration mechanism.
As mentioned above, Dr. Matsumura has had numerous remarkable achievements
in his research on the development of polymeric cryoprotectants and their biomedical
applications. His work has significantly contributed to our society. Therefore, Dr.
Matsumura deserves the 2015 Young Scientist Award of the Japanese Society for
Cryobiology and Cryotechnology.