Engineers have created a system to store biomaterials without a refrigerator
Researchers are "compressing" biological materials into solids to provide long-term storage for research and drug development.Researchers at California Polytechnic State University have developed a technology to preserve liquid biological materials as solid powders. The technology can provide long-term storage and transportation of enzymes, proteins and antibodies for research, drug development and diagnostic tests.
The idea for the technology is borrowed from the pharmaceutical industry: where solid pills with long shelf lives have long since replaced liquid preparations that were prepared just before administration. Researchers cell-free protein synthesis system (CFPS). This system rapidly produces proteins using a solution containing biocomponents (ribosomes, enzymes, DNA, and amino acids), but without the use of living cells.
To ensure long-term storage of the materials, the researchers lyophilized the results of the CFPS reaction. In this process, the components are mixed, frozen and dehydrated. The scientists pressed the finished solid preparation into a solid tablet.
Analysis showed that such a solid-state system is able to maintain the complex biochemical mixture under normal conditions (storage at room temperature). For "reconservation", the tablet was added to water along with a pellet containing a cellular mechanism for decoding genetic information.
Enzymes, mRNAs, proteins and antibodies from human cells