Patent ID: 8037696

Claim:
A method for changing the temperature of a biological material from a first temperature to a second temperature within a time period, one of the said first or second temperatures being above freezing temperature and the other being below freezing temperature, comprising: providing an apparatus comprising an insulator having inner and outer walls and at least two opposing heat exchangers, each heat exchanger having a first end and a second end, the heat exchangers being spaced from each other along their entire longitudinal dimension by a space, and each heat exchanger comprising a fluid conduit extending along the entire longitudinal dimension thereof between an inlet tube and an outlet tube spaced by the longitudinal dimension, the inlet and the outlet tubes projecting from the first and second ends of the heat exchangers towards the inner walls of the insulator; placing the biological material or a container holding the biological material in the space between the at least two opposing heat exchangers such that the biological material or the container holding the biological material is tightly in contact with each of the two opposing heat exchangers along a majority of the longitudinal dimension, and controlling the temperature in one or more of the at least two heat exchangers by means of the fluid conduits such that a freezing temperature front propagates in the material away from the one or more heat exchangers.