Ross Warner Wins Critser Award 

Ross Warner has been named the Critser Award winner for 2017.

GE Healthcare Purchases Asymptote

GE Healthcare has recently purchased Asymptote. Founder and CEO of Asymptote, John Morris, is a long time member of the Society for Cryobiology. 

Miao Zhang Defends Thesis 

Student member of the Society for Cryobiology, Miao Zhang, is to defend her thesis on June 23, 2017. During her PhD studies Ms. Zhang received the Society's John K. Critser award for the best extended student abstract in 2015 and the Peter L. Steponkus Crystal award for the best student oral presentation at the Society's meeting in 2016.

Thesis: Towards dry preservation of mammalian cellls
The central aim of this thesis was to test if trehalose can be introduced into mammalian cells during freezing-induced membrane permeabilization and if this subsequently stabilizes cells during freezing and/or freeze-drying. It was hypothesized that membrane-impermeable molecules including trehalose can be loaded into cells through freezing-induced membrane phase transitions. One of the conclusions was that mammalian cells can be loaded with membrane-impermeable compounds (i.e. trehalose) by subjecting the cells to freezing-induced osmotic stress and membrane imperfections. It was shown that trehalose can be used as sole cryoprotectant to cryopreserve cells. Preloading with trehalose via fluid-phase endocytosis did not increase cryosurvival rates if trehalose is also added as extracellular protectant. It is particularly freezing-induced trehalose uptake that facilitates cryosurvival when trehalose is used as the sole cryoprotectant. One other aim was to investigate if freezing-induced uptake of trehalose stabilizes cells during freeze-drying, and to assess the effect of trehalose on storage stability of DNA during freeze-drying and dried storage. No viable cells were recovered after freeze-drying and rehydration. DNA was found to be largely intact directly after freeze-drying. DNA damage in freeze-dried cells progressively increases with storage duration and temperature. DNA damage was prevented by storage of the samples at 4°C. It was shown that trehalose reduces DNA damage during storage.

Biography
Miao Zhang received her education at Southeast University (Nanjing, China) (BE, 2011), after which she completed master's studies at Ulm University (Ulm, Germany) (MSc, 2013). She was accepted in the PhD program ‘Regenerative Sciences’ in 2013 at Hannover Medical School (Hannover, Germany) and conducted her PhD project at the Institute of Multiphase Processes, Leibniz University of Hannover (Hannover, Germany), under the supervision of Dr. Willem Wolkers. 

Searching for Outstanding Individuals 

The Society for Cryobiology established the award and medal of CryoFellow over a decade ago in recognition of members of the society and individuals from the cryobiology community who have had an outstanding impact on the field.

Notes From the Director's Desk 

Peter Mazur Memorial Website 

Fritz Kleinhans has recently unveiled a memorial website for the late Peter Mazur. Fritz has invited members of the Society for Cryobiology to submit photographs or remembrances for inclusion on the site. 

Peter Mazur (1928-2015) was a pioneer and leading figure in the world of cryobiology for over 50 years. He was a founding member of the Society for Cryobiology and served as President from 1973-1974. He served numerous terms as Governor and was active at board meeting even while not in office (no one argued with Peter!). He was also a member of the editorial board from 1967 until his death.

Close friends and colleagues of Peter's, Fritz Kleinhans and David Pegg, wrote a touching obituary which was published in the April 2016 issue of Cryobiology. The obituary, along with photos and details of Peter's most important research can all be found on the memorial website.  

New Member Welcome

Do you have what it takes to govern the Society for Cryobiology?  

Postdoc Position for Bull Semen Cryopreservation Optimization

The Benson Cryobiology laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan, in collaboration with SEMEX, Inc in Quebecc, is offering a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship to an applicant interested in using novel interdisciplinary techniques to optimize bull semen cryopreservation. The successful candidate will work towards bull semen cryopreservation media optimization by determining biophysical parameters, cryoprotectant toxicities, and toxicity minimizing agents. Then they will use these components in a novel way to determine optimal cryoprotectant media equilibration protocols leading to successful post thaw recovery. This interdisciplinary project combines basic sperm science with mathematical modeling and optimization in an applied setting with access to large donor, recipient, and data pools.

Qualifications:

Want to be a student moderator at CRYO2017?

At last year's annual meeting, CRYO2016 in Ottawa, the Society for Cryobiology and the International Young Cryobiology Researchers (ICYR) introduced a student moderator at each symposium to give students the chance to gain valuable experience in moderating a session.

It was such a success that we are repeating it again this year!

If you're a student attending CRYO2017 and would like the chance to practise moderating a symposium please fill in the application form below by June 30. 

'Apollo Program' of Organ Banking Announced

Did you know that for every ONE patient that receives a heart transplant in the USA, TEN hearts from organ donors are wasted because they cannot be transplanted in time?