If only half of these discarded organs were transplanted, wait lists for these organs could be eliminated within three years, according to recent estimates cited by Bischof, Brockbank and their co-authors. "We actually tried to use microwave warming, which failed terribly due to hot spots in the tissue," Brockbank said. To scale up nanowarming to accommodate human organs, the team will further refine and optimize each element of the system. They plan to start with rabbit organs, work next with pig organs and finally attempt cryopreservation and rewarming of human organs, including the heart. Meanwhile, "there's been a groundswell of interest" in using the technology to preserve organs, Bischof said.

Source: CNN March 01, 2017 18:56 UTC