Also: Dsup, water bears, CAHS proteins
Tardigrades survive drying, radiation, and even space. Their special proteins are studied for protecting cells and medicines.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Jönsson and colleagues found tardigrades survived exposure to space in low Earth orbit.
As reported in: Jönsson, Rabbow, Schill et al. (2008). Tardigrades survive exposure to space in low Earth orbit. Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.06.048
Hashimoto and colleagues found the tardigrade protein Dsup reduced radiation damage in human cells.
As reported in: Hashimoto, Horikawa, Saito et al. (2016). Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms12808
Boothby and colleagues showed tardigrades use disordered proteins to survive drying out.
As reported in: Boothby, Tapia, Brozena et al. (2017). Tardigrades Use Intrinsically Disordered Proteins to Survive Desiccation. Molecular Cell. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2017.02.018