Nearly all vaccines (and many other drugs) must be produced, transported, and stored within a precise temperature window of 2-8 °C. If these life-saving medicines are exposed to temperatures outside this range, even briefly, the results can be catastrophic in terms of loss of efficacy and the production of dangerous breakdown products.

In developed parts of the world vaccines stabilization relies on the cold-chain - a series of refrigerators and freezers - to maintain viability. However, in remote of developing parts of the world establishing and maintaining a cold-chain can be a huge logistical and economic burden.

We are seeking to alleviate our reliance on the cold-chain by co-opting strategies used to extremophile and extremotolerant organisms to stabilize their sensitive biological material.