Researchers Trying To Make Human Cells Capable of Surviving In Low Temperatures

Researchers at Rutgers are trying to freeze fruit flies – no, not just because they’re annoying pests. Not only are they attempting to freeze the flies, but also to at the same time control the internal temperature of the tiny organisms. Researchers a certain type of fruit fly called Drosophila, because of its complex genetic code. They are currently trying to find out how to flip the switch that makes the flies prone to cold temperature. The Rutgers professor Daniel Shain has found a ‘switch’ of this kind in an ice worm, which resided in the glaciers. The enzyme is an AMP phosphate. The enzyme allows the worms to not only be able to live through the ice cold of the glacier, but also to flourish in it. Though this is no easy task, researchers of all likes, graduate and undergraduates at Rutgers continue to observe and study other organisms that seem to thrive in colder areas. Researchers are confident that if they can find out how other organisms do it, they should be able to figure out if human cells can do, and furthermore, they believe that if things such as ice worms, bacteria, and algae can become prone to harsher weather, so can human cells. Researchers want to make it so that the organs and cells of human beings can thrive for longer periods on ice.

The article is related to the topic of biology and relevant to it because these kinds of tests and studies can further teach us how the bodies of different organisms work and adapt in different conditions. We can gain more knowledge on how different beings work, and see if there are any correlations between two or more types of organisms.

We should care, because if scientists are able to figure out how to make flies immune to the effects of cold weather, they could use the same technique to figure out how to make human cells perceptible to the cold, and organs from organ donors can thrive longer than twenty four hours after they’re dead. This could keep a lot of people from dying, and has the potential to be very huge, and significant in the scientific community. As the current period of time a human organ can stay alive without a warm body to host it is twenty four hours, this time limit could be stretched, and cause a lot more lives to be saved.

Source: Dillow, Clay. “Researchers Making Freezable Fruit Flies, and Eventually Human Cells That Can Survive Low Temperatures.” Popular Science. August 19th, 2010.

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