Compositions and methods for preservation of materials in the amorphous state

1. A method for preservation of a biomaterial comprising:

combining the biomaterial with a preservative composition comprising a sugar or sugar alcohol and a salt comprising choline hydrogen phosphate (HPO 4 −2 ) to form a mixture, wherein the salt in the preservative composition comprises 50% or more of HPO 4 −2 and 50% or less of choline dihydrogen phosphate (H 2 PO 4 − ); and

converting the preservative composition around, within, or around and within the biomaterial to an amorphous state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sugar is selected from the group consisting of: sucrose, glucose, fructose, and trehalose.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sugar comprises trehalose.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomaterial is selected from the group consisting of: living tissues, living cells, live viruses, polypeptides, nucleic acids, biomolecules, and combinations of these.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting the material to the amorphous state comprises processes selected from the group consisting of: cooling the material to a temperature less than the glass transition temperature of the composition, dehydration, or a combination of both cooling and dehydrating.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the cooling or dehydration is selected from the group consisting of: freezing, freeze-drying, vitrification, cryopreservation, heat drying, microwave drying, lyophilization, use of a desiccant, air-flow drying, spin drying, spray drying, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preservative composition forms an amorphous state matrix around, within, or around and within the biomaterial.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preservative composition suppresses crystal formation in the amorphous state preservative composition around, within, or around and within the biomaterial for a greater amount of time as compared to a biomaterial preserved with a comparative composition having the same formulation as the preservative composition except for having a greater amount of choline dihydrogen phosphate (H 2 PO 4 − ).

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preservative composition has a salt:sugar ratio of about 0.1 to about 2.0.

10. The method for preservation of a biomaterial of claim 1 , wherein the preservative composition has a pH of about 7.0 or greater.

11. A method of suppressing crystallization of a composition in an amorphous state comprising a sugar or sugar alcohol, the method comprising:

combining the sugar or sugar alcohol with a salt comprising choline hydrogen phosphate (HPO 4 −2 ) in an amount effective to increase the amount of time to formation of crystals in the composition when in the amorphous state as compared to a composition in the amorphous state made without the choline hydrogen phosphate or made with a greater amount of choline dihydrogen phosphate (H 2 PO 4 − ) than choline hydrogen phosphate.

12. A preservative composition comprising:

a sugar or sugar alcohol and

a salt comprising choline hydrogen phosphate (HPO 4 −2 ), wherein the choline hydrogen phosphate comprises 50% or more of the salt,

the composition having a salt:sugar ratio effective to suppress the formation of crystals in the composition in the amorphous state such that the amount of time to formation of crystals in the presence of moisture is increased over the amount of time to crystal formation in a comparative composition that is the same as the preservative composition except for having a greater amount of choline dihydrogen phosphate (H 2 PO 4 − ) than the salt of the preservative composition.

13. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the salt:sugar ratio is from about 0.2 to about 2.0.

14. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the salt:sugar ratio is from about 0.5 to about 2.0.

15. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the salt:sugar ratio is between about 0.2 and 1.0.

16. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the composition has a pH of about 7.0 or greater.

17. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the composition has a pH between about 7.0 and 10.0.

18. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the sugar is selected from the group consisting of: sucrose, glucose, fructose, and trehalose.

19. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the sugar comprises trehalose.

20. The preservative composition of claim 12 , wherein the salt comprises about 50% or less wt percent choline dihydrogen phosphate.

21. A composition comprising:

a living biomaterial, and

a preservative composition comprising a sugar or sugar alcohol and a salt comprising 50% or more of choline hydrogen phosphate (HPO 4 −2 ) and 50% or less of choline dihydrogen phosphate (H 2 PO 4 − ),

wherein the preservative composition is in an amorphous state and wherein the amount of time to formation of crystals in the presence of moisture is increased over the amount of time to crystal formation in a comparative composition comprising the biomaterial without the salt in the preservative composition comprising 50% or more of choline hydrogen phosphate.

22. The composition of claim 21 , wherein the sugar is trehalose.