Bio-inspired Ice-controlling Materials for the Cryopreservation of Cells and Tissues
Date: 2021/09/17 - 2021/09/17
Academic Seminar: Bio-inspired Ice-controlling Materials for the Cryopreservation of Cells and Tissues
Speaker: Jianjun Wang, Professor, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academic of Sciences
Time: 10:00 - 11:30, September 17, 2021 (Beijing Time)
Location: CIMC Auditorium（Room 300）, JI Long Bin Building
Feishu: vc.feishu.cn/j/235090819
Abstract
Cryopreservation is a science and technology of using ultra-low temperatures for the long-term storage of cells, tissues and even organs, which is the key bottleneck for advanced medical technologies, e.g., cell therapy, regenerative medicine, and organ transplantation, to fully realize their life-saving potential. At present, vitrification, a widely used cryopreservation strategy, can turn the water in the biological sample into glassy water during the freezing, protecting the biological sample from freezing damage by completely suppressing the formation of ice crystals. However, vitrification faces a grand challenge, that is, vitrification must use a large amount of cytotoxic molecules, such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which impair the function of biological samples and result in a low recovery rates. In nature, many cold-acclimated species can avoid freeze damage and survive in the subzero environment due to the existence of ice-controlling proteins. Inspired by these proteins, our group have made intensive investigations to clarify the mechanisms of these proteins on ice nucleation and growth. Meanwhile, a series of ice-controlling materials have been constructed and employed for the cryopreservation of cells and tissues to completely abandon the use of conventional toxic cryoprotective molecules. Our studies reveal that the function of cryopreserved cells by bio-inspired ice-controlling materials is much better than that cryopreserved by conventional molecules.
Biography
Jianjun Wang undertakes the Distinct Young Scholar Project of NSFC. He obtained his Ph.D degree at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research and University of Mainz (Germany) in 2006. After the postdoctoral research, he became a project leader at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in 2007. Since 2010, he has been a professor at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academic of Sciences. His current research is focused on the molecular level understanding of ice formation and its applications such as cryopreservation of cells, organs and tissues, and anti-icing coatings with ultra-low ice adhesion; and he has papers published in peer review journals, such as Nature, Nature Materials, PNAS, and Science Advances. Prof. Dr. Wang is Advisory Board member of many research centers and journals such as research center of molecular science of Chinese Academy of sciences, water: ice interface augmentation center of Korea University as well as Acta Polymerica Sinica.