This widely expanded second edition offers a compilation of robust, reproducible techniques for the conservation of a wide range of biological materials. It includes novel approaches and protocols that were not preservable when the first edition was published.
The book begins with a discussion of long term ex situ conservation of biological resources, the role of biological resource centers, and fundamental principles of freeze-drying and cryopreservation. Each chapter focuses on the preservation of specific biological materials, including proteins, mircroorganisms, cell lines, and multicellular structures.
From the reviews of the second edition:
"...practical and reliable resource for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources."-Anticancer Research
"This book is a welcome addition to the relatively sparse comprehensive reference publications on preservation methodologies which are currently available. It begins sensibly with a grounding in the principles involved in preservation, in logical and easy to follow steps. It is well laid out and covers a wide spectrum of cell/organism types in the one volume ... ." (Peter Green, Molecular Biotechnology, December, 2007)