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Newsnotes
June 2014

Table of Contents

  
  1. Message from the Editorial office
  2. New Members
  3. 2014 Election
  4. World Forum on Biology
    1. Event Report
    2. Newly Elected Fellow
    3. Student Award Winners
  5. Upcoming Events
  6. Cryobiology Journal

Do you have any news, reviews, articles, vacancies or training opportunities to share in the June newsletter?

If so please email them to the editorial team at [email protected]

2014 Officers

President
Erik J. Woods

President-Elect
Jason Acker

Past-President
John H. Crowe

Secretary
Yuksel Agca

Treasurer
Adam Higgins

2013 Board of Governors

Serean Adams
W. John Armitage
James D. Benson
Gloria D. Elliot
Eric James
Jens O. M. Karlsson
Barbara M. Reed
Andreas Sputtek
Tiantian Zhang






 

 

Message from the Editorial Office

This month's message comes to you directly from the editorial team for a change!

Here in the editorial office, cloistered away in the UK, editor-in-chief David Rawson, and myself have just returned from the 2014 World Forum on Biology, held this year in Savannah, GA.  If you were unable to attend you can experience a taste of the proceedings in this issue's event report, kindly written by President-Elect, Jason Acker. 

For David and myself the meeting was a chance to catch up with the Board of Governors, and hear what is happening with the administration of the Society as well as the Board's plans for the future.  We also held the annual editorial board meeting, taking a look at the year in review, as well as discussing matters of editorial significance.  David was also kept busy with various symposia and chaired a session on oocyte and gamete cryopreservation.

For me it was great to see many members again that I first met last year, as well as meet new members who have only recently joined the society, or who were unable to attend our 50th anniversary meeting last year. As I'm in contact with you, our members, so often, it's nice to be able to put a face to your names.  Likewise, I'm sure you appreciate knowing who's at the other end of the cryobiology email address.  

I thought I would take this chance to let you know that both David and myself would thoroughly welcome your input into the newsletter.  If there's ever anything you would like to see included all you have to do is drop us a line at [email protected].  This covers anything from news, reviews, articles, event reports, training opportunities, events and conferences, personal successes, student successes, milestones - pretty much anything you can think of!  If you're currently researching something novel let me know. I'd love to profile your group in a forthcoming issue of Newsnotes!

Best wishes,
Nicole Evans
Editorial Assistant

New MembersWelcome

Since the last newsletter we warmly welcome the following new members:

  • Diana Averill-Bates (Canada)
  • Maki Miura (United Kingdom)
  • Ruth Marcec (USA)
  • Evonne Fearnot (USA)
  • Sylvia Silver (USA)

2014 Election for Board of Governors

It's almost election time again!  Later this year an election will be held for three members of the Board of Governors, to replace outgoing Governors Eric James, Barbara Reed and Andreas Sputtek, who are coming to the end of their three year term on the Board.

As usual the nominating committee will draw up a short list of candidates, but the Board also welcomes nominations by petition, with any current member of the society eligible to stand for election. More information will be forthcoming over the next few months, including a list of candidates and their statements, as well as further information on the voting procedure.  It is anticipated that the voting period will be from September until October, with announcement of the successful candidates in early November. 

For more information on nomination by petition, or if you would like to be considered by the nominating committee as a candidate, please contact society secretary, Dr. Yuksel Agca.

2014 World Forum on Biology - Event Report World Forum on Biology 2014 Logo

The 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for Cryobiology was held this year at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia, USA from May 31 – June 4.  This year, approximately 400 members from the Society for Cryobiology and the Society for In Vitro Biology joined together to discuss the latest trends in animal, plant and low temperature biology.

The 4-day scientific program had a total of 332 abstracts, with 117 being delivered by the invited speakers.  Each day started with a Plenary Symposium to engage the participants in a “hot topic” or broad reaching area of science that would appeal to the diverse interests of the attendees.  The Society for Cryobiology sponsored the Plenary Symposium entitled “Climate Change, the Cryosphere and Cryopreservation” with Drs. Diana Wall, Mary Hagedorn and Valerie Pence highlighting the enormous value that cryobiology plays in understanding and helping us protect against climate change.  Following the daily Plenary Symposium, there were a series of parallel sessions to keep participants engaged and actively moving between rooms.

The highlight of the meeting was the Keynote Presentation by Dr. Pierre Comizzoli from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.  Dr. Comizzoli delivery an excellent presentation on “Technology and Ecology Aspects of Genome Resource Banking”.  The keynote presentation was followed by the meeting opening ceremony and a reception where members from the two societies could meet and engage in lively discussion.

The 120 students and trainees attending the meeting were kept busy attending the sessions and participating in the student-focused activities. Sessions on “Effectively Communicating Science” and a student-networking luncheon were aimed at engaging with the newest members of our society and to provide them with opportunities for professional development.  Competition for the best poster and the Peter L Steponkus Crystal Award was fierce as the quality of the science and the presentations was very high.  

As a joint meeting with the Society for in Vitro Biology, special attention was made to create networking opportunities for the members of the two societies to come together and discuss topics of common interest.  Plenary symposia, joint receptions, poster sessions, and a joint tour of Old Fort Jackson, kept the discussion going long after the scientific sessions ended.

At this year’s annual meeting, we continued the practice of partnering with our colleagues at the International Society for Cellular Therapies and the American College of Cryosurgery to bring together cryobiologists with the end users of the cryosciences.  The two sessions of the cryopreservation of cell therapies and cryosurgery were very well attended and resulted in stimulating discussions around how we can further work together on applied aspects of cryopreservation.

The organization of a meeting of this scope cannot occur without the commitment of a large group of members and volunteers.   This year, we worked very closely with Dr. Michael Spencer and the SiVB program committee and Marietta Ellis and her team from New Beginnings Management Inc. to organize the meeting. We are grateful for the sponsorship and participation of the commercial exhibitors who introduced us to their technologies, programs and products.  An enormous “Thank you” to the SfC members and volunteers who helped make this year’s meeting a success.

Stay tuned for an announcement on the location of the CRYO 2015 Annual Meeting.

Newly Elected Fellow

The society was pleased to announce at the recent AGM in Savannah that Greg Fahy has been nominated and approved as a Fellow of the Society for Cryobiology. 

Greg is the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Twenty-First Century Medicine and is an expert in the field of organ vitrification.  He has a publication record spanning over 35 years and is active in many areas of cryopreservation and vitrification. 

Above: Watch Greg Fahy's plenary lecture at Cryo2013 on Ice Formation.

Student Prize Winners

The SfC is proud to continue its support of our student members with our annual student awards.  As always the awards committee had a difficult task in judging the awards, especially considering the breadth of topics submitted. 

All the winners deserve our congratulations, but a special mention is in order for Daisuke Takahashi of Iwate University, Japan, who won both the Critser Award for best student abstract, as well as the Steponkus Crystal Award for the best student oral presentation, for his abstract and presentation: "Compositional and Functional Analyses of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored Protein (GPI-AP) during plant cold acclimation." 

Pictured right: Daisuke Takahashi with James Benson (chair of the awards committee).

Here are this year's winners in full:

J. K. Critser Award for Best Student Abstract                             
Daisuke Takahashi

Peter L. Steponkus Crystal Award Winner for Best Student Oral Presentation
Daisuke Takahashi

Peter L. Steponkus Crystal Award Finalists
Jennie Briard
Tim Morris
Oleksandr Gryshkov
Daisuke Takahashi

Best Student Poster Award
Michael Zielinski

John K. Critser Student Travel Award
Daisuke Takahashi
Jennie Briard
Lothar Lauterboeck
PIerre Lyons
Tim Morris
Oleksandr Gryshkov
Ahmad Sultani
Daisuke Takahashi
Jingru Yi
Michal Zielinski 

sfc 2014 prize winners

Our 2014 student award winners in full.  Left - Right:  Tim Morris, Pierre Lyons, Jennie Briard, James Benson (chair of awards committee), Erik Woods (SfC President), Oleksandr Gryshkov, Lothar Lauterboeck, Michael Zielinski, Daisuke Takahashi, Jingru Yi, and Ahmad Sultani. 


Upcoming Events

British Association for Crystal Growth Annual Conference

July 13-15, Leeds, UK

Abstracts are currently being accepted for the 45th annual BACG conference, which will be held from July 13-15 at the Rosebowl in Leeds, UK.

Conference topics include:

  • Crystallisation Modelling Across Length Scales
  • Crystallisation for Product Formulation
  • Fundamentals of Nucleation and Crystal Growth
  • Ice Nucleation and Crystallisation
  • Industrial Crystallisation Processes

Confirmed speakers include SfC member John Morris (Asymptote Ltd, Cambridge, UK) as well as Richard Braatz (MIT, USA) and Elias Vlieg (Radboud Univ, Netherlands).

For further information please visit http://www.bacg.co.uk/bacg2014/index.php

IBP Conference

Second Ice-Binding Protein Conference
August 4 - 7, 2014. Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

We are pleased to announce the 2nd International Ice-Binding Protein Conference will be held August 4 - 7, 2014 in Sapporo, Japan. The first meeting in this series took place three years ago in Kingston, Canada, and attracted 75 scientists from 13 countries. A variety of organisms living in cold/ice-laden environments produce ice-binding proteins, which include macromolecular antifreezes inhibitors of ice recrystallization, ice adhesions and ice nucleation proteins. Because of their importance in science and technology, both their basic principles and practical applications will be discussed at this gathering. The venue is the Conference Hall of Hokkaido University, which is located close to the Sapporo Railway (JR) station, in the centre of Sapporo. 

The organizing Committee members are: Peter Davies, Ido Braslavsky, Arthur DeVries, Sakae Tsuda (the host), John Duman, and Andrzej Wierzbicki.

Confirmed speakers include SfC members Ido Braslavsky and Maddalena Bayer, among others.

For further information please visit http://www.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/IBP_meeting_2014

Cryobiology Journal

Here's a quick glimpse inside this month's issue of Cryobiology.

In Memoriam
  • Stanley Paul Leibo – Cryobiologist
    Peter Mazur
Regular Articles
  •  Studying the performance of bifurcate cryoprobes based on shape factor of cryoablative zones
    X. Zhao, K.J. Chua

  • Thermal expansion of vitrified blood vessels permeated with DP6 and synthetic ice modulators
    David P. Eisenberg, Michael J. Taylor, Jorge L. Jimenez-Rios, Yoed Rabin

  • Comparison of two different cryopreservation protocols for freezing goat semen
    Niyazi Küçük, Melih Aksoy, Uğur Uçan, Ejaz Ahmad, Zahid Naseer, Ahmet Ceylan, İlker Serin

  • Cryopreservation of hMSCs seeded silk nanofibers based tissue engineered constructs
    Akalabya Bissoyi, K. Pramanik, Niladri Nath Panda, S.K. Sarangi

  • Evaluation of intracellular and extracellular trehalose as a cryoprotectant of stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood
    Juliana Pessanha Rodrigues Motta, Flávio Henrique Paraguassú-Braga, Luis Fernando Bouzas, Luís Cristóvão Porto

  • In vitro effects of l-carnitine and glutamine on motility, acrosomal abnormality, and plasma membrane integrity of rabbit sperm during liquid-storage
    Serpil Sarıözkan, Saim Özdamar, Gaffari Türk, Fazile Cantürk, Arzu Yay

  • Adverse effect of cake collapse on the functional integrity of freeze-dried bull spermatozoa
    Hiromasa Hara, Miho Tagiri, In-Sul Hwang, Masato Takahashi, Masumi Hirabayashi, Shinichi Hochi

  • Spermatozoa from the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) display typical canid hyper-sensitivity to osmotic and freezing-induced injury, but respond favorably to dimethyl sulfoxide
    Amy E.M. Johnson, Elizabeth W. Freeman, David E. Wildt, Nucharin Songsasen

  • Cryopreservation of turkey semen: Effect of breeding line and freezing method on post-thaw sperm quality, fertilization, and hatching
    Julie A. Long, Phillip H. Purdy, Kees Zuidberg, Sipke-Joost Hiemstra, Sandra G. Velleman, Henri Woelders

  • Osmotic parameters of red blood cells from umbilical cord blood
    Mariia Zhurova, Locksley E. McGann, Jason P. Acker

  • Sperm characteristics and heterologous in vitro fertilisation capacity of Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) epididymal sperm, frozen in the presence of the enzymatic antioxidant catalase
    J. López-Saucedo, M.T. Paramio, R. Fierro, D. Izquierdo, M.G. Catalá, M.A. Coloma, A. Toledano-Díaz, A. López-Sebastián, J. Santiago-Moreno

  • Effects of glycerol on apoptotic signaling pathways during boar spermatozoa cryopreservation
    Changjun Zeng, Keyi Tang, Lian He, Wenpei Peng, Li Ding, Donghui Fang, Yan Zhang

  • Esterified glucomannan improves aflatoxin-induced damage of sperm parameters during liquid storage of ram semen at 5 °C
    Mehmet Bozkurt Ataman, Mustafa Numan Bucak, Kenan Çoyan

  • Recombinant Dendroides canadensis antifreeze proteins as potential ingredients in cryopreservation solutions
    Dina O. Halwani, Kelvin G.M. Brockbank, John G. Duman, Lia H. Campbell

  • Survivals of mouse oocytes approach 100% after vitrification in 3-fold diluted media and ultra-rapid warming by an IR laser pulse
    Bo Jin, F.W. Kleinhans, Peter Mazur

  • Proactive rectal warming during total-gland prostate cryoablation
    Chung-Hsin Chen, Yeong-Shiau Pu

  • Preservation of high phenylalanine ammonia lyase activities in roots of Japanese Striped corn: A potential oral therapeutic to treat phenylketonuria
    Arturo López-Villalobos, Joost Lücker, Ana Angela López-Quiróz, Edward C. Yeung, Kristoffer Palma, Allison R. Kermode

  • Effect of desiccation level and storage temperature on green spore viability of Osmunda japonica
    Yang Li, Lei Shi

  • Supplementing culture and vitrification-warming media with l-ascorbic acid enhances survival rates and redox status of IVP porcine blastocysts via induction of GPX1 and SOD1 expression
    Miriam Castillo-Martín, Sergi Bonet, Roser Morató, Marc Yeste

  • Birth of a domestic cat kitten produced by vitrification of lipid polarized in vitro matured oocytes
    Jason Galiguis, Martha C. Gómez, S.P. Leibo, C. Earle Pope

Brief Communication
  •  A simple and serum-free protocol for cryopreservation of human umbilical cord as source of Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells
    Saheli Roy, Sneha Arora, Poonam Kumari, Malancha Ta