Tardigrades are the undisputed masters of survival. Bake them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, freeze them to within a degree of absolute zero, deprive them of water and oxygen, subject them to the vacuum of space — they will still survive. And now scientists have begun to show how we can harness their legendary resilience to advance human medicine.
Inspired by the feats of these near-microscopic animals (also known as water bears), researchers at the University of Wyoming wanted to see what would happen if they introduced a particular tardigrade protein into isolated human cells. Incredibly, even in such a foreign context, it had the same effect: The cells slowed their molecular processes, resulting in a sort of suspended animation that protected them from harm.
These findings point to the potential for tardigrade biology to extend the shelf-life of medicines, to halt tissue decay from injuries, and perhaps even to slow the aging process. They were published in the journal Protein Science earlier this year, with Silvia Sanchez-Martinez, a senior research scientist in the lab of molecular biologist Thomas Boothby, as the paper’s lead author.
“If we learn the tricks [tardigrades] use to survive these extreme environments,” Sanchez-Martinez says, “maybe we can use those to our advantage.”
