Abraham, Stephanie2015-11-132015-11-1320152015http://hdl.handle.net/10393/33189http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-4055The effects of ice recrystallization are well recognized throughout the literature. This phenomenon is the major cause of cellular damage during freezing and thawing of cells, ultimately reducing post-thaw viability and function. Herein, we describe a method for quantifying the inhibitory effect on ice recrystallization of novel small molecules that are cryoprotectants for red blood cells. The method is ideally suited to the splat-cooling assay, where ice high ice volume fractions are present. Using our method, we have derived first order rate constants for the increase of average crystal size based upon a “binning” approach of ice crystals as a function of size and time. Using this reliable metric, dose-response curves were constructed to obtain IC50 values. Two very effective inhibitors of ice recrystallization, PMP-Glc and pBrPh-Glc, were shown to have low IC50 values while Glc, a known ineffective inhibitor of ice recrystallization, did not. Furthermore, this kinetic approach was adapted to suit a condensed and simplified assay for the screening of new compounds for their ice recrystallization inhibition activity. This was accomplished through studying the initial rates from the binning approach and constructing dose-response curves that led to very comparable IC50 values when the full kinetic profile was assessed. This work therefore presents the quantification of ice recrystallization inhibition and the adaptation to a condensed screening assay for use in our laboratory.enThesis