The delivery of the next generation of medical treatments such as regenerative medicine hinges on our ability to store biological material. Cryopreservation - that is, the process of freezing biological material whilst retaining its function - is our best bet to achieve that, but the state-of-the-art suffers from a number of crippling limitations. One such limitation is the rather scanty portfolio of cryoprotectants available to us: these compounds are added into the mix so as to control the formation of ice in biological matter and thus mitigate the many detrimental effects caused to cells and tissues by the growth of ice crystals. We need more effective, safer, less toxic, cheaper cryoprotectants - and yet, in the last few decades we have failed to design any valid alternative to the very few compounds (glycerol being a prominent example) that we have more or less serendipitously discovered in the by now distant past. This is because we lack the molecular-level understanding of how exactly cryoprotectants work. In this talk, I will present some recent advances specific to the mechanism of ice re-crystallisation inhibition agents, i.e. compounds that limit the growth of ice crystals - one of the many aspects that a cryoprotectant can act upon. In particular, I will discuss the picture emerging from our findings in terms of the ice re-crystallisation inhibition activity of selected polymers, peptides and surprisingly small molecules as well. Whilst the ultimate goal of achieving the rational design of novel cryoprotectants might still be beyond our grasp, molecular simulations are playing an important part in getting us all there - as long as they can keep the pace with the experimental work and the translational efforts into industry applications.

 

 

Zoom link: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/94983629930