[{"command":"settings","settings":{"ajaxPageState":{"theme":"hm_theme","theme_token":"8uWs9jziyiyti3YGIbNEMTt1oxeKnOifWBzVmYvvmeM","libraries":"eJwDAAAAAAE"},"ajaxTrustedUrl":{"form_action_p_pvdeGsVG5zNF_XLGPTvYSKCf43t8qZYSwcfZl2uzM":true},"pluralDelimiter":"\u0003","user":{"uid":0,"permissionsHash":"2af85631393b514cbde3779a1f71d92618d53b94b54ea1960d28b2e2d121ff12"}},"merge":true},{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/8796\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EAntifreeze fish inspire new cryoprotectants for human cells and tissues\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhether it\u0027s the dark, suffocating deep sea or the scalding, bubbling thermal pools, life finds a way to call it home. So, it isn\u0027t a surprise that \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2019\/03\/how-fish-evolved-antifreeze-junk\/585226\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Efish living in the freezing cold waters of the Arctic and Antarctic\u003C\/a\u003E could provide the inspiration for a new generation of cryoprotectant molecules.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe fish, and other cold-temperature extremophiles, produce proteins that can recognise and bind to ice as it is forming, acting like an anti-freeze. Ice crystals can do a lot of damage to the body, from causing proteins to clump together to weakening the structures that hold tissue together.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThis led Professor Matthew Gibson, at Warwick University in the United Kingdom, to attempt to recreate the abilities of ice-binding proteins using synthetic polymers. These have the advantage of being easier to adjust or \u2018tune\u2019 to suit their purpose and to manufacture at scale.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We can make it a bit more tuneable as you\u0027ve got literally thousands of different monomers you could use to make a polymer,\u2019 he said. \u2018Our aim was, if we can mimic some of those properties, to apply these to improve or change how we freeze cells.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThrough the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/789182\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECRYOSTEM\u003C\/a\u003E project, Prof. Gibson tested these polymers by adding them to samples of bone marrow stem cells, which are often frozen when being transported for a transplant. The current system involves adding solvents to protect the cells when freezing. However, it isn\u0027t ideal. A significant proportion of the cells do not survive and the solvent itself can affect them.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EProf. Gibson has been able to show that his \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acsabm.0c00638\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Epolymers can decrease the amount of solvent\u003C\/a\u003E needed for cryopreservation, reducing the damage done to the cells. This approach could also help biomedical research, allowing scientists to more reliably store and thaw a wider range of cells in the laboratory.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EHe is now expanding this work through the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/866056\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EICE PACK\u003C\/a\u003E project to apply cryoprotectant polymers to the growing field of biologic treatments. Traditional pharmaceuticals are typically small molecules that can be put into a tablet form and will be stable in the medicine cabinet for months. Now, more and more of the modern best-selling drugs are proteins, such as antibodies to treat arthritis or cancer, which need to be stored much more carefully.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EMore delicate still are cell-based therapies like CAR T cells, which are modified immune cells used to treat cancer. At the moment, cell-based therapies are rare and very expensive, but in the future, they may become more common.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018They have quite a complex process, where they\u0027re collected from the donor and then they need modifying, freezing and shipping,\u2019 said Prof. Gibson. \u2018Anything you can do to make sure they\u0027re protected as best as they can, or make the cold chain easier, is going to have a really big (effect on) patient outcome.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe ultimate dream\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EZoom out from individual proteins or cells and the picture becomes even more complicated.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Ice can form inside and outside the cell. Depending on where the ice forms, it is disruptive to cellular structures or extra-cellular structures \u2013 for example, the extra-cellular matrix in which the cells are embedded,\u2019 said Professor Ilja Voets at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe challenge of freezing samples of tissue is another area where analogues of ice-binding proteins could help. As part of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/101001965\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EPROTECT\u003C\/a\u003E project, Prof. Voets is particularly interested in the freezing and thawing of heart cells and tissue. Currently, only about half of the cells are useable after freezing when studying cultures in the laboratory. This becomes even more difficult when studying tissue samples.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Typically, the preservation conditions are optimal for one cell type (within the heart tissue), but not for the other types, or not for the tissue as a whole,\u2019 she said. It is a big challenge but the ice-binding protein analogues don\u2019t have to preserve the tissue perfectly to be useful. \u2018There\u0027s a very strong regenerative ability of tissues. So in some cases, if the damage is modest, then the tissue can repair itself and it can still be used.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EVoets is using very high-resolution microscopy to understand how different types of ice-binding protein analogues are able to prevent ice formation. This will help to create improved versions that can reduce freeze injury to tissue.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe potential to reliably bank your own tissue samples, to be thawed if needed in the future, is \u2018one of the ultimate dreams\u2019, Voets said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Say someone has an infarct (a region of dead cells), you will be able to transplant heart tissue from that very specific patient because you have banked it. That\u0027ll be fantastic, and it could lower the risk of rejection as well. There\u0027s a lot of things that we could gain from being able to bank more types of cells and tissues.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Our cultural imagery of frozenness is about to change.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf. Thomas Lemke, Goethe University, Germany \u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA technological fix\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAdvances in cryopreservation are already making an impact on society. Some companies, mostly in the US, offer egg-freezing services as a perk to employees who want to delay having a child. This essentially defers the decision-making of how to align the competing needs of professional advancement and childcare, says Professor Thomas Lemke, from Goethe University in Germany. \u2018This is what is often called a technological fix for a societal problem,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThis technological fix places further burden on the individual to adapt so that society doesn\u0027t need to change. Prof. Lemke said there is a real danger that it could become a societal expectation. Cryopreservation could become the ultimate insurance policy. Private companies already offer banking for umbilical cord blood, which is rich in stem cells. Perhaps in the future, we will also be able to bank heart tissue.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EProf. Lemke is studying the societal impacts of this \u0027suspended life\u0027, as he calls it, across Europe through the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/788196\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECRYOSOCIETIES\u003C\/a\u003E project. He is examining how cryopreservation practices have developed and how they influence our decision-making.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWhereas societies have often associated coldness with death, cryopreservation creates new opportunities from medical care to biodiversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u0027s no longer the state of non-transformation, of remaining inert. But rather, it mobilises things and it opens up options,\u2019 said Prof. Lemke. \u2018Our cultural imagery of frozenness is about to change.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU\u2019s European Research Council. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis article was originally published on 4 August 2021.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-qglu-twzqk2ltox8fh9w0imaaijkd5u5z4o0a-qjuqs\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-qGLU_Twzqk2LTOX8fH9W0IMaAIJKd5U5Z4o0a-QJuqs\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]