Protein hydration and its freezing phenomena; Toward the application for cell freezing and frozen food storage

Yamamoto, Naoki*; Nakanishi, Masahiro*; Rajan, R.*; Nakagawa, Hiroshi   

Water is an indispensable solvent for living things. 60% of our body is composed of water, the lack of which causes lots of fatal problems. It has also been known that protein function is performed only when it accompanies water molecules around the surface, i.e. hydration water molecules. Therefore, it is essential to understand how water and biological component interact with each other in the view point of structure and dynamics. Freezing is a fundamental and simple phenomenon of water, and thus can be used as a probe for the purpose. Furthermore, preservation of cells and proteins under low temperature is crucial for numerous applications, which in turn triggers a myriad of undesirable consequences because of the freezing.