Mimicking the Ice Recrystallization Activity of Biological Antifreezes. When is a New Polymer "Active"?

ABSTRACT: Antifreeze proteins and ice-binding proteins have been discovered in a diverse range of extremophiles and have the ability to modulate the growth and formation of ice crystals. Considering the importance of cryoscience across transport, biomedicine, and climate science, there is significant interest in developing synthetic macromolecular mimics of antifreeze proteins, in particular to reproduce their property of ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI). This activity is a continuum rather than an "on/off" property and there may be multiple molecular mechanisms which give rise to differences in this observable property; the limiting concentrations for ice growth vary by more than a thousand between an antifreeze glycoprotein and poly(vinyl alcohol), for example. The aim of this article is to

SUBMITTER: Biggs CI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6828557 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature