Dutch and American researchers have used computer simulations to develop a protein that works like an anti-freeze agent. Researchers could use this protein to freeze and defrost biological material such as immune cells, sperm and perhaps even donor organs in the future, without causing any damage to the material. This was reported by chemists at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Washington University in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I haven’t editorialized the title, but I don’t like it since the desired protein structure was thought up by the grad student and the “digitally designed” piece just seems to be some MD modelling to confirm the desired outcome before synthesis.

That being said, I thought this was interesting since freeze/thaw (F/T) stress is ubiquitous in the life sciences and something that is especially important to the emerging field of cell therapy. Typically, excipients like sucrose, trehalose, or glycerol are used to preserve biological molecules during F/T, but they are not protective in every case. Developing alternative means to protect during F/T gives people like me that develop therapeutic formulations more options to turn to in the case of difficult molecules.

doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220380120