Natural antifreeze in their blood! How Antarctic fish survive

The key to their survival, in this hostile icy marine environment, resides in their capacity to produce a specific type of biological antifreeze.

In this talk, Associate Professor Clive Evans of the University of Auckland will describe where this molecule is made in Antarctic fish. He will show how it works, together with another less well known molecule, to stop fish from freezing. He will also broach some possible commercial applications of fish antifreeze molecules.

Clive will provide an overview of the Antarctic marine environment and summarize the challenges it presents for its endemic fishes. 

Clive Evans currently holds a Senior Research Fellow position in the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland. He is also an Honorary Research Scientist in the University's School of Biological Sciences where he was formerly Deputy Director (Academic). Clive has made about twenty trips to Antarctica working from the New Zealand, American and Italian research stations. Most of his recent research effort has addressed the question of how Antarctic fish survive in icy waters. 

(*While pure water freezes at 0°C, the salt in sea water lowers the freezing point to about –2°C.)