The development of new cryopreservation strategies has major potential in medicine, in particular for storage of biological matter. The detailed characteristics of the cooling and thawing processes has proven crucial for the survival of liver bio-transplant cells in research being done at UCL's Royal Free Hospital Liver Group. A specially designed protocol ensures that more than 75% of cells survive cooling followed by thawing. Currently there is no clear explanation as to why this happens, the hypothesis being that it relates to the formation of glass pockets within an ice matrix. Previous measurement at ISIS have allowed us to prove the existence of a larger glass to ice ratio with the special protocol that when quench. We ask to continue the study by a detailed structural (diffraction) and dynamical (QENS) characterisations of the ice formation and the glassy pockets respectively.
