Medical Thawing System Safe Storage of Biopharma Products

Let’s know about the thawing process

We can consider thawing as a process of taking a frozen product from frozen to temperature (often above 0 degrees Celsius). The thawing process finishes only when there is no residual such as defrosting. We can also say thawing is simply the opposite of the freezing process.

Definition of medical thawing system

The thawing system includes the process for defrosting biological samples in biology research. There are many uses of biological research. These include regenerative medicine, cellular therapy, biobanking, and drug discovery. We can use a thawing system for the safe storage and transport of biopharma products. There are two main types of thawing systems viz. automated and manual.

An automated thawing system is intended to thaw the living biological contents of a cryogenic vial. However, manual thawing systems rule the industry. It is due to the availability of various products and the high utilization rate due to the lower price.

Working of thawing systems

The majority of thawing systems supplies heat to the object surface. After that, they rely on conduction to transfer that heat into the center of the food. A few thawing systems use electromagnetic radiation to generate heat within the food. One should strike a balance while choosing a thawing system for industrial use. One should consider components like the visible condition of the product, thawing time, cost of operation, and processing issues.

Medical thawing systems based on sample outlook

1. Plasma

The plasma thawing system includes regulated temperature and agitation. These features considerably reduce thaw time while making sure the safety of your plasma. When water within the plasma thawer bag reaches at 36 degrees Celsius, the thawing takes place in most instances.

Most plasma thawing system comes with a microprocessor temperature controller. These controllers are audible and have a visual high-temperature alarm. The majority of thawing systems can load and unload without waiting for the water to be added and drained.  

2. Embryo

We can expect massive growth of embryo thawing systems in the next few years. This is due to a surge in live birth rate and pregnancy rate due to embryo donation. Also, we also see high adoption of in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology for infertility. These components are propelling the demand for modern thawing systems.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were above 2.6 million IVF treatment in 2016 alone. Moreover, the number of embryo donor transfers is increasing due to various awareness programs.

End-users of Medical thawing systems

1. Tissue Bank

Tissue banks are those institutions that store and recover human cadaver tissues. The reason behind this is education and medical research. Tissue banks harvest and store tissues like skins, cornea, tendons, bone joints, Dura mater, and cartilage.

Many of these issues have applications in treating burn patients. Advanced thawing system assists in expanding the success rate of tissue transplantation methods. We can assume market development because of the growing applications of tissue products and technological advancement.

2. The blood bank and transfusion centers

The blood bank and transfusion systems significantly dominate the industry. This massive dominance is because of the huge utilization of thawing systems in these transfusion centers and blood banks.

As per the World Health Organization, there are currently 13,300 blood centers in 169 nations. These centers collect above 106 million donations. We can assume the massive development of the thawing system because of the surge in these institutions.

Limitations in the thawing process

There is an intrinsic problem with the thawing process. But this problem doesn’t occur during the freezing process. We can find the majority of the bacteria that cause food poisoning or spoilage on the surfaces of many food items. During the process of freezing, the surface temperature reduces and the multiplication of bacteria gets limited. Hence, bacteria become completely dormant below -10 degrees Celsius.

Nonetheless, during the thawing process, surface temperature increases, and the multiplication of bacteria can restart. During the uncontrolled thawing process, Surface spoilage of big objects can happen. Many thawing systems work independently, giving the flexibility of starting batches of plasma at different times. Moreover, the baskets present in thawing systems automatically lift plasma bags out of the water once a process is complete. This offers the ease of saving walk-away time.  

To sum up

Thawing referred to a process of taking a frozen product from frozen to temperature (often above 0 degree Celsius). We can assume the huge market growth of the medical thawing system due to various advantages. However, we try to explain some limitations that come with the thawing process.  

There are different applications of the medical thawing system. However, we explain the two major applications i.e. blood banks and transfusion centers above. Furthermore, this article explains the medical thawing system based on sample outlook i.e. plasma and blood.