X-Message-Number: 769 Date: Sun, 26 Apr 92 12:37 GMT From: Bob Grahame <> Subject: Cryonews New advance allows total water loss, no damage to proteins. The lead article in todays Sunday Telegraph covers the work of British scientist Dr Bruce Roser, whose company has developed a way of using a sugar-like compound, trehalose, to reduce the water content of biological materials to zero while causing no detectable damage. On adding water the trehalose, which is non-toxic, can be removed, leaving all the protein structures intact. The company, Quadrant, have also located the gene which allows cells to produce trehalose naturally, such as in some drought resistant crops and invertebrates. This looks very promising indeed, as it allows indefinite storage with no possibility of damage by free radicals, and therefore possibly without freezing! Bob. [ Message #6 cited the Feb. 13, 1988 Science News cover article on microorganisms that survive dessication by forming hydrogen bonds between the cell membranes and sugars such as trehalose. Messages #128 & #129 also referred to the use of trehalose for preservation. - KQB ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=769