E-Mail IMAGE: A molecular-level detail of the interaction between PVA and ice (from molecular dynamics simulations) view more Credit: Credit: University of Warwick Cryoprotectants are used to protect biological material during frozen storage They have to be removed when defrosting, and how much to use and how exactly they inhibit ice recrystallisation is poorly understood The polymer poly(vinyl)alcohol (PVA) is arguably the most potent ice recrystallisation inhibitor and researchers from the University of Warwick have unravelled how exactly it works. This newly acquired knowledge base provides novel guidelines to design the next generation of cryoprotectants When biological material (cells, blood, tissues) is frozen, cryoprotectants are used to prevent the damage associated with the formation of ice during the freezing process. New polymeric cryoprotectants are emerging, alongside the established cryoprotectants, but how exactly they manage to control ice formation and growth is still largely unknown. This is especially true for PVA, a deceptively simple synthetic polymer that interacts with ice by means of mechanisms that have now been revealed at the atomistic level thanks to researchers from the University of Warwick.