Nancy E. Levinger, professor of chemistry at Colorado State University, will deliver the Catherine H. Bone Lecture in Chemistry at Wilkes University at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Stark Learning Center 105. Levinger’s lecture, “Save the Plants! Visualizing Cryoprotectant Permeation and Location Confined in Plant Cells and Tissues,” is free and open to the public.
For anyone who has looked out the window at a snow-covered pine tree and wondered how the needles stay alive in below-freezing temperatures, Levinger’s presentation may provide some insight. “Save the Plants!” highlights how chemistry can contribute to plant cryopreservation research and practice.
Like conifers in northern climates, some organisms possess molecules that naturally enable them to withstand cold. Scientists have copied nature to develop a way to cryopreserve biological materials, storing them at low temperatures. Applications for this work include the conservation of endangered species, as well as the storage of critical agricultural materials or exotic plants for shipment to the moon or Mars.
The Levinger research group at Colorado State University has embarked on a project to explore how plant cryopreservation agents interact with plant cells and tissues to help plants stay viable. Results demonstrate precise times and locations of the cryoprotecting agents as they interact with living plants, and researchers follow the interaction to measure how and why the cryoprotecting molecules protect against low temperatures.
Levinger combines her research and teaching interests through the involvement of undergraduate students in research at Colorado State University. She has spearheaded several programs to increase research opportunities for undergraduates, such as the Undergraduate Research Institute in the College of Natural Sciences.
Levinger earned her bachelor of science degree in integrated science and physics from Northwestern University and her doctoral degree in chemical physics from the University of Colorado. She joined the faculty at Colorado State University in 1992.
The Catherine H. Bone Lecture Series was made possible by the endowments of its namesake, who taught chemistry at Wilkes from 1946 to 1965.
