Pharmaceutical Freeze-Drying
Among the diverse offerings of the BioUpdate Foundation, the course on Pharmaceutical Freeze-Drying takes pride of place. It was first held in 1992 in the Netherlands and has since then been mounted annually in several European countries, and even in the U.S.A., with varying success. The Foundation has succeeded in attracting a faithful following, mainly from Benelux and Scandinavian countries. The remarkable feature, at least to us, the Course Organisers, is the almost total absence of U.K. interest. Can it really be that the U.K. pharmaceutical industry is on top of the subject? We do not believe that to be the case.

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Nature Materials 5, 632-635 (2006)
Organization and mobility of water in amorphous and crystalline trehalose
DUNCAN KILBURN, SAM TOWNROW, VINCENT MEUNIER, ROBERT RICHARDSON, ASHRAF ALAM and JOB UBBINK.

The disaccharide trehalose is accumulated by micro organisms, such as yeasts, and multicellular organisms, such as tardigrades1, 2, when conditions of extreme drought occur. In this way these organisms can withstand dehydration through the formation of an intracellular carbohydrate glass, which, with its high viscosity and hydrogen-bonding interactions3, 4, stabilizes and protects the integrity of complex biological structures and molecules. This property of trehalose can also be harnessed in the stabilization of liposomes5, proteins6 and in the preservation of red blood cells7, but the underlying mechanism of bioprotection is not yet fully understood. Here we use positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy to probe the free volume of trehalose matrices; specifically, we develop a molecular picture of the organization and mobility of water in both amorphous and crystalline states. Whereas in amorphous matrices, water increases the average intermolecular hole size, in the crystalline dihydrate it is organized as a confined one-dimensional fluid in channels of fixed diameter that allow activated diffusion of water in and out of the crystallites. We present direct real-time evidence of water molecules unloading reversibly from these channels, thereby acting as both a sink and a source of water in low-moisture systems. We postulate that this behaviour may provide the overall stability required to keep organisms viable through dehydration conditions.

As was the case for the slowly frozen people, this publication was followed by internet press releases, three of them emanating from the Nestle Company.
Here is an example for those who might be interested.

A press release by a commercial company, although not necessarily of great scientific significance, can fulfil a purpose, because of its PR value. But a promotional press release, uploaded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, will cause raised eyebrows:
View Here.

It describes the same Nestle trehalose magic ? 2006 version - but in hyped-up language, hardly worthy of a Learned Society. We were there eight years ago and witnessed the debunking of trehalose magic and now, sadly, it needs debunking yet again. Who will cast the first stone?

“I enjoyed the Amorph 2006 meeting, its strengths were the format and venue which made it a very friendly meeting with opportunities to meet everyone. As was said at the meeting, the students were very impressive and highly professional.”

“I enjoyed discussion time very much.. I think it better if there should have been more space or time for poster presentations.”

“The Möller Centre was a very comfortable and nice place for the meeting.”

“Thank you for your handling of this conference. It was a good experience for me for the first time to participate in an international conference.”

“I would like to thank you for the bursary that I was awarded. Please extend my acknowledgement to the entire organizing committee.”

“The event was important and relevant to me because I’m working with gelatin in the amorphous state, concepts such as enthalpy relaxation (molecular motion), physical aging and “water” content were familiar for me. Unfortunately, there were few food sciences presentations but I could profit from some fundamental knowledge shown in pharmaceutical presentations.”

“Most presentations were of a good quality, but I think it is not a good manners to read the entire slide to the public, even when the content is interesting. The time keeping for presentations was a bit hard to manage for session leaders but they always were on time. Congratulations!!”

“I think Cambridge city, specially the Moller centre, were suitable places to mount the Amorph 2006 seminar. I was very satisfied with my room., resources available, food, internet, etc. I would like to thank you as well for the trip to the city which was lovely.”

“There were some very interesting presentations that could have used more time to be thoroughly presented (Molecular dynamic simulations come to mind). One other thing that could be improved is regaining the focus on the effect of water on stability.”

“I was slightly surprised that besides Pfizer, no other major pharmaceutical companies were represented - yet so many of them are located in the South East of the UK; also that Cadburys, United Biscuits and Mars were not there. (Editor’s note: Just goes to show the state of knowledge and awareness).”