Gregory M. Fahy
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Gregory M. Fahy
The cryobiologist who championed vitrification, first for whole organs and then, with William Rall, for embryos.
An idea about glass. Gregory M. Fahy, often known as Greg, studied biology at the University of California, Irvine, and took a PhD in pharmacology and cryobiology at the Medical College of Georgia. His great question was how to store whole organs, such as a kidney, at very low temperatures. Ice forming between cells tears tissue apart, so he looked for a way to have no ice at all.
Vitrification. In 1984 he and colleagues set out the idea in Cryobiology under the title "Vitrification as an approach to cryopreservation". A solution rich enough in cryoprotectants does not crystallise when cooled. It simply thickens until it sets into a glass.
Into the embryo laboratory. Working at the American Red Cross cryobiology laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland, he and William Rall tested the idea on mouse embryos. Their 1985 paper in Nature showed that embryos survived well after vitrification at minus 196°C. Decades later, it is the way most human eggs and embryos are stored.
Back to organs. He continued to pursue organ banking in California. In 2009 his team described in detail a rabbit kidney that had been vitrified, rewarmed and transplanted, and that went on to support life. He has also studied ageing, and in 2019 reported a small human trial on regenerating the thymus.
Honours. He is a Fellow of the Society for Cryobiology and served as its president from 2022 to 2023.
Also see: William F. Rall
About the sources
- Society for Cryobiology. Past Presidents of the Society for Cryobiology (Fahy, Gregory M., 2022 to 2023) and Fellows of the Society for Cryobiology, societyforcryobiology.org, accessed October 2026.
- Fahy GM, Brooke RT, Watson JP, et al. Reversal of epigenetic aging and immunosenescent trends in humans. Aging Cell 2019;18(6):e13028. PMID 31496122.
- Fahy GM, Wowk B, Pagotan R, et al. Physical and biological aspects of renal vitrification. Organogenesis 2009;5(3):167–175. PMID 20046680.
- Rall WF, Fahy GM. Ice-free cryopreservation of mouse embryos at -196 degrees C by vitrification. Nature 1985;313(6003):573–575 (affiliation: American Red Cross Cryobiology Laboratory, Bethesda). PMID 3969158.
- Fahy GM, MacFarlane DR, Angell CA, Meryman HT. Vitrification as an approach to cryopreservation. Cryobiology 1984;21(4):407–426. PMID 6467964.
- Greg Fahy. Wikipedia, accessed October 2026 (birth year 1950; education).
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
