{"id":267,"date":"2019-08-05t15:31:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-05t19:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/?page_id=267"},"modified":"2019-08-06t14:17:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06t18:17:16","slug":"cryptobiosis-and-science-funding","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/cryptobiosis-and-science-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"cryptobiosis and science funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

something stirs in a fog filled glass compartment set in a futuristic looking spaceship cabin, camera zooms in on the face of ashen looking human face, uncomprehending eyes blink<\/a> and open, the astronaut stirs to life as the compartment lid opens and the befuddled looking human emerges, showing first signs of comprehension\u2026<\/a>\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

science-fiction (or comedy) has the scenario worked out, but how close is real science getting to its realization? understanding cryptobiosis<\/a> and paying for such research is the only path to achieving this goal. many living organisms on earth have evolved to withstand conditions unsuitable to life as we humans understand it. humans and most earthly organisms require water, food, suitable temperature, and plentiful oxygen in the atmosphere. but oddities and exceptions exist among many of the \u201clower\u201d life forms, from bacteria<\/a> to yeasts<\/a>, plants<\/a> and insects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
the most familiar form of cryptobiotic organism- baker’s yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

to me, the most interesting is the ability to survive long periods without water (dehydration, desiccation) or anhydrobiosis<\/a>. mosses may not be the most currently suitable experimental system for studying this phenomenon due to lack of understanding of their genetics, but fate brought me into the lab of dr. derek bewley for my msc degree<\/a>, so these will be my focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

video clip of rehydration of polytrichum<\/em> moss in real time. water moves along capillary surfaces of the plant and enters into cells, which expand. <\/a>download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

the fundamental issue faced by desiccation tolerant organism is the maintenance of structural integrity \u2013 this means maintaining a working relationship between macromolecules which make up the cellular structure. in \u201cnormal\u201d situation, such molecules are surrounded by plenty of water which \u201chydrates\u201d the surfaces, allows for the formation of the membrane phospholipid bilayers, and serves as a solvent for the movement and delivery of essential cellular components during the normal \u201cliving\u201d or \u201cgrowing\u201d phase of the organism\u2019s life. as water is lost to the organism by evaporation or drawn out by surrounding ice, it is generally understood that other molecules which to some extent mimic or substitute for the hoh structure of water. these tend to be sugars or alcohols, molecular structures surrounded by oh \u201cfunctional groups\u201d. in some organisms seasonal metabolic (read \u201cmolecular\u201d) adjustments are needed to go from the \u201cgrowing\u201d to \u201ctolerant\u201d stages. but many slow growing organisms (such as mosses or lichens) are ever ready to face adverse conditions by always investing energy and resources into the synthesis of protective molecules of the \u201csurvival mode\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

while scientists have worked out many of the protective\nbiochemical\/molecular mechanisms which permit the anhydrobiosis stage survival,\nthe problem of maintaining structural integrity is fundamentally biophysical\none, and an area of scientific endeavour for which many biology 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛 are\nnot prepared. new techniques are being developed, which will allow direct\nvisualization of the dehydration process, as well as methods for indirect\nprobing of the molecular interactions during the de- a re-hydration phases. new\ngeneration of scientists is needed to address these fascinating questions, but\nmany of these methods will rely on expensive instrumentation, which will only be\navailable at large institutions and used by teams of scientists from\ndisciplines other than biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where would i go and what would i do if i had to start answering anhydrobiosis questions now? how would i fund my research? peter medawar has written an excellent little tome \u201cadvice to a young scientist<\/a>\u201d (copy available in herbarium library). even though written in the 1950\u2019s much of his insight is still topical. but times have changed in respect to funding of basic, curiosity driven research. nowadays it helps to persuade the funding agencies and their granting panels of scientists that the proposed research will have some direct benefit to humanity. so even though the best experimental \u201cmodel\u201d organisms are the ones with well understood genetics (bacteria<\/a>, yeasts<\/a> and caenorhabditis<\/a> \u2013 all desiccation tolerant), desiccation and cryopreservation of human cells<\/a> and tissues offer a \u201cback door\u201d route to justifying one\u2019s inquiries into cryptobiosis. (reproductive cell cryopreservation is well funded, but contributes to overpopulation – more on this elsewhere). the canadian research establishment tends to be too small to support\u00a0 programs, and one would have to return to canada after establishing a career abroad as a post-doctoral fellow in a well established cryptobiosis laboratory. unless applying to nasa or international space agency, i would not push the fictional space travel angle. preserving whole human bodies proposal would definitely be extreme, unless applying to a wealthy benefactor, who wishes to become immortal and expects future science<\/a> to be able to resurrect his\/her body. in the grand scheme of things, more pressing issues related to global warming and suppressing the human reproductive instinct may be given funding preference in the not so distant future. alternatively, the day may come when degradation of earth ecosystems renders the planet barely habitable to humans, anhydrobiosis and cryptobiosis research may become essential for human species survival on earth. (for more optimistic essays, see here in the future).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

something stirs in a fog filled glass compartment set in a futuristic looking spaceship cabin, camera zooms in on the face of ashen looking human face, uncomprehending eyes blink and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lkhdherbarium.lakeheadu.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}