A practical reference on Collapse temperature: what it is, how it behaves, what the literature reports, and where the honest uncertainties sit.
This page was last updated on 2026-02-16 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
A freeze-dryer consists of a vacuum chamber, temperature-controlled shelves, a condenser, and a vacuum pump. Vials, ampoules, or bulk trays hold the product during the cycle. The condenser traps water vapor as ice at a temperature lower than the product. Cycle development balances shelf temperature, chamber pressure, and time. Scale-up can be difficult because heat and mass transfer change with equipment size, so process analytical tools and conservative validation are often used.
Lyophilization is a dehydration technique in which a product is frozen and the solvent is removed under reduced pressure. The low pressure allows ice to sublimate directly into vapor without passing through a bulk liquid phase. This differs from conventional drying, where heat drives evaporation and can damage heat-sensitive structures. The process is used for biological materials, pharmaceutical formulations, and some foods. Its main advantage is preservation of porous structure and rapid reconstitution.
Freezing is the first stage and sets the ice structure that later becomes the pore network. The formulation is cooled below its freezing point, often with a controlled ramp, and solutes concentrate as ice forms. Primary drying then lowers chamber pressure and supplies heat to sublime the ice. The product temperature must stay below its collapse or eutectic temperature to prevent structural loss. Secondary drying raises the temperature modestly to remove bound water and achieve a low residual moisture.
Formulation composition influences whether freeze-drying produces an intact cake or a collapsed mass. Excipients such as sugars and polymers can raise the collapse temperature and provide bulk during drying. The critical temperature for primary drying is often the collapse temperature or the glass transition temperature of the maximally concentrated phase. If the product temperature exceeds this threshold, the frozen matrix may soften and lose structure. Established practice therefore links shelf temperature and chamber pressure to the formulation's thermal properties.
The physics of freeze-drying couples heat transfer, mass transfer, and phase change. Heat supplied through the shelf must reach the sublimation front without melting the ice or degrading the product. Water vapor then travels through the already dried layer and leaves the chamber, where low pressure and cold traps keep it from returning. The dried layer acts as a resistance to vapor flow, so drying rate changes as the front recedes. Open questions remain about how pore structure and formulation heterogeneity affect drying uniformity at larger scales.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Common synonyms | freeze-drying, lyophilisation, cryodesiccation | Lyophilization is common in pharmaceutical literature. |
| Typical chamber pressure during primary drying | 0.05–0.5 mbar (5–50 Pa) | Must remain below the triple point of water. |
| Typical shelf temperature during freezing | −40 to −20 °C | Lower temperatures may be used for eutectic systems. |
| Typical residual moisture after secondary drying | 0.5–3% w/w | Product-dependent; low moisture improves stability but can cause over-drying. |
| Typical analytical method for residual moisture | Karl Fischer titration or loss on drying | Thermogravimetric methods are also used. |
The physics of lyophilization couples heat transfer, mass transfer, and phase behavior. Sublimation requires a vapor pressure difference between the ice front and the chamber, and the dried layer adds resistance to vapor flow. Amorphous formulations are characterized by a glass transition temperature of the maximally freeze-concentrated solute, often denoted Tg'. Crystalline bulking agents can provide structure, while amorphous excipients stabilize labile components. Open questions remain about spatial heterogeneity, edge effects, and how laboratory cycles scale to production.
Lyophilization is a drying process in which a solvent, usually water, is removed from a frozen material by sublimation under reduced pressure. The material is first solidified, then placed under vacuum so that ice transitions directly to vapor without a bulk liquid phase. This approach suits heat-sensitive substances that would degrade during conventional evaporation. Primary drying removes unbound ice, while secondary drying reduces water that remains adsorbed to the solid matrix. The result is a porous, lightweight solid that can be reconstituted later.
Freezing determines ice crystal structure and pore size, which affect drying speed and product uniformity. Rapid freezing creates small crystals, while slow freezing creates larger crystals and often faster sublimation. During primary drying, chamber pressure is held below the vapor pressure of ice, and shelf temperature supplies heat for sublimation. The ice front recedes, leaving a porous matrix. Thermal limits such as collapse and eutectic temperatures set safe boundaries for formulation. These limits vary with solute composition and concentration.
Secondary drying removes bound water that remains after ice sublimation. Shelf temperature is raised gradually while pressure remains low, reducing water content to a target range. Over-drying can cause brittleness or electrostatic issues, while under-drying affects stability. The endpoint is often judged by pressure rise tests, temperature measurements, or water content analysis. Scale-up depends on matching heat and mass transfer across equipment sizes. Small changes in shelf temperature or pressure can alter cycle length substantially.
Ca2+ currents through cardiomyocyte gap junctions mediate synchronized contraction of cardiac tissue. As a result, GCaMP expression in cardiomyocytes, both in vitro and in vivo, has been used to study Ca2+-influx-dependent excitation and contraction in zebrafish and mice. For instance, Tallini et al. (2006) expressed GCaMP2 in mouse embryos to show that, at embryonic day 10.5, electrical conduction was rapid in the atria and ventricles but slow in the atrioventricular canal. Chi et al. (2008) used a transgenic cardiac-specific GCaMP zebrafish line to image cardiomyocyte activation throughout the cardiac cycle; from their results, they characterized four developmental stages of the zebrafish cardiac conduction system and identified 17 novel mutations affecting cardiac conduction. However, uncontrolled expression of GCaMP leads to cardiac hypertrophy due to overexpression of the calmodulin motif, which interferes with intracellular calcium signaling. As a result, experiments using cardiac tissue should carefully control the level of GCaMP expression.
(E)-4-Hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl pyrophosphate (HMBPP or HMB-PP) is an intermediate of the MEP pathway (non-mevalonate pathway) of isoprenoid biosynthesis. The enzyme HMB-PP synthase (GcpE, IspG) catalyzes the conversion of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate (MEcPP) into HMB-PP. HMB-PP is then converted further to isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) by HMB-PP reductase (LytB, IspH). HMB-PP is an intermediate in the non-mevalonate pathway for the biosynthesis of the isoprenoid precursors isopentenyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate. Most gram-negative bacteria, the photosynthetic cyanobacteria and green algae use only this pathway, while higher plants also use the mevalonate pathway. The enzyme 4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl diphosphate synthase uses two reduced ferredoxin proteins per molecule of the precursor MEcPP to convert it to HMB-PP:
Inhibition of apoptosis can result in a number of cancers, inflammatory diseases, and viral infections. It was originally believed that the associated accumulation of cells was due to an increase in cellular proliferation, but it is now known that it is also due to a decrease in cell death. The most common of these diseases is cancer, the disease of excessive cellular proliferation, which is often characterized by an overexpression of IAP family members. As a result, the malignant cells experience an abnormal response to apoptosis induction: Cycle-regulating genes (such as p53, ras or c-myc) are mutated or inactivated in diseased cells, and further genes (such as bcl-2) also modify their expression in tumors. Some apoptotic factors are vital during mitochondrial respiration e.g. cytochrome C. Pathological inactivation of apoptosis in cancer cells is correlated with frequent respiratory metabolic shifts toward glycolysis (an observation known as the "Warburg hypothesis".
Arrestins block GPCR coupling to G proteins in two ways. First, arrestin binding to the cytoplasmic face of the receptor occludes the binding site for heterotrimeric G-protein, preventing its activation (desensitization). Second, arrestin links the receptor to elements of the internalization machinery, clathrin and clathrin adaptor AP2, which promotes receptor internalization via coated pits and subsequent transport to internal compartments, called endosomes. Subsequently, the receptor could be either directed to degradation compartments (lysosomes) or recycled back to the plasma membrane where it can again signal. The strength of arrestin-receptor interaction plays a role in this choice: tighter complexes tend to increase the probability of receptor degradation (Class B), whereas more transient complexes favor recycling (Class A), although this rule is far from absolute. More recently direct interactions between Gi/o family G proteins and Arrestin were discovered downstream of multiple receptors, regardless of canonical G protein coupling. These recent findings introduce a GPCR signaling mechanism distinct from canonical G protein activation and β-arrestin desensitization in which GPCRs cause the formation of Gαi:β-arrestin signaling complexes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Silver sulfadiazine (SSD) is a topical antibiotic used in partial thickness and full thickness burns to prevent infection. It was discovered in the 1960s, and was the standard topical antimicrobial for burn wounds for decades. However systemic reviews in 2014, 2017 and 2018 concluded that more modern treatments, both with and without silver, show better results for wound healing and infection-prevention than silver sulfadiazine, and therefore SSD is no longer generally recommended. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a number of topical preparations of silver sulfadiazine for treatment of second-degree and third-degree burns.
No chromosome translocations, chimeric genes, or fusion proteins have been described in BIA-ALCL although the neoplastic cells in the disease have been described to have gene copy number variations involving gains in gene copies on the p arm of chromosome 19 and losses of gene copies in the p arms of chromosome 10 and 1. The neoplastic cells in BIA-ALCL show mutations of the STAT3 gene in 64% of cases and reports of mutations in JAK1, JAK3, DNMT3A, and TP53 genes. The development of BIA-ALCL, it has often been suggested, may be at least in part a T-cell-induced, inflammation-driven cancer response to the implant.
When genotypes grown together in a diverse population have different profiles of resource use they complement each other in the exploitation of the limiting resource and therefore are subject to smaller between-plant competition. In case of disease or environmental change some plants will take over when others fail. Yield stability over years and environments can be better than pure lines due to compensation. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) methods represent alternatives aimed to improve local adaptation breeding, to promote genetic diversity, to empower farmers and rural communities. In PPB farmers are actively participating in developing new cultivars or populations, e.g. by performing selection.
Some groups of people have specialized transfusion requirements. Fetuses, very low-birth-weight infants, and immunocompromised people are at risk for developing severe infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV)―an opportunistic pathogen for which approximately 50% of blood donors test positive―and may be transfused with CMV-negative blood to prevent infection. Those who are at risk of developing graft-versus-host disease, such as bone marrow transplant recipients, receive blood that has been irradiated to inactivate the T lymphocytes that are responsible for this reaction. People who have had serious allergic reactions to blood transfusions in the past may be transfused with blood that has been "washed" to remove plasma. The history of the patient is also examined to see if they have previously identified antibodies and any other serological anomalies. A direct antiglobulin test (Coombs test) is also performed as part of the antibody investigation. Donor blood is generally screened for transfusion-transmitted infections such as HIV. As of 2018, the World Health Organization reported that nearly 100% of blood donations in high- and upper-middle-income countries underwent infectious disease screening, but the figures for lower-middle-income and low-income countries were 82% and 80.3% respectively.
Absorption spectroscopy is spectroscopy that involves techniques that measure the absorption of electromagnetic radiation, as a function of frequency or wavelength, due to its interaction with a sample. The sample absorbs energy, i.e., photons, from the radiating field. The intensity of the absorption varies as a function of frequency, and this variation is the absorption spectrum. Absorption spectroscopy is performed across the electromagnetic spectrum. Absorption spectroscopy is employed as an analytical chemistry tool to determine the presence of a particular substance in a sample and, in many cases, to quantify the amount of the substance present. Infrared and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy are particularly common in analytical applications. Absorption spectroscopy is also employed in studies of molecular and atomic physics, astronomical spectroscopy and remote sensing. There is a wide range of experimental approaches for measuring absorption spectra. The most common arrangement is to direct a generated beam of radiation at a sample and detect the intensity of the radiation that passes through it. The transmitted energy can be used to calculate the absorption. The source, sample arrangement and detection technique vary significantly depending on the frequency range and the purpose of the experiment. Following are the major types of absorption spectroscopy:
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Industrial breeding of plants has unintentionally altered how agricultural cultivars associate with their microbiome. In maize, for example, breeding has altered the nitrogen cycling taxa required to the rhizosphere, with more modern lines recruiting less nitrogen fixing taxa and more nitrifiers and denitrifiers. Microbiomes of breeding lines showed that hybrid plants share much of their bacterial community with their parents, such as Cucurbita seeds and apple shoot endophytes. In addition, the proportional contribution of the microbiome from parents to offspring corresponds to the amount of genetic material contributed by each parent during breeding and domestication.
4-Aminosalicylic acid was first synthesized by Seidel and Bittner in 1902. It was rediscovered by the Swedish chemist Jörgen Lehmann upon the report that the tuberculosis bacterium avidly metabolized salicylic acid. Lehmann first tried PAS as an oral TB therapy late in 1944. The first patient made a dramatic recovery. The manner in which Lehmann discovered the TB indication for PAS was salient in the history of drug discovery because it was a rare example in which a person mentally postulated the exact molecule for a drug based on their acquired knowledge of the biochemical behaviour of an analogue of the molecule. The drug proved better than streptomycin, which had nerve toxicity and to which TB could easily develop resistance. In 1948, researchers at Britain's Medical Research Council demonstrated that combined treatment with streptomycin and PAS was superior to either drug alone, and established the principle of combination therapy for tuberculosis. 4-Aminosalicylic acid has many names including para-aminosalicylic acid, p-aminosalicylic acid, 4-ASA, and simply P.
On 1 December 1978, the Health and Safety Executive announced their intention to prosecute the university for breach of safety legislation. The case was heard in October 1979 at Birmingham Magistrates' Court. Although the source of infection was traced, the mode and cause of transmission was not. Evidence presented by several internationally recognised experts, including Kevin McCarthy, Allan Watt Downie and Keith R. Dumbell, showed that airborne transmission from the laboratory to the telephone room where Parker was supposedly infected was highly improbable. The experts calculated that it would require 53,700 litres (11,812 imp gal) of virus fluid to have been aspirated (meaning, in this context, removed by suction of fluid and cells through a needle) and it would take 20,000 years for one particle to travel to the telephone room at the rate the fluid was aspirated. It was additionally found that although the Shooter Inquiry noted the poor state of the duct sealing in the laboratory, this was caused after the outbreak by engineers fumigating the laboratory and ducts. The university was found not guilty of causing Parker's death.
Commercial availability varies by country. Approved systems in various countries, described further below, include MiniMed 670G or 780G, Tandem's Control-IQ, Omnipod 5, CamAPS FX, and Diabeloop DBLG1. In September 2016, the FDA approved the Medtronic MiniMed 670G, which was the first approved hybrid closed loop system. The device automatically adjusts a patient's basal insulin delivery. It is made up of a continuous glucose monitor, an insulin pump, and a glucose meter for calibration. It automatically functions to modify the level of insulin delivery based on the detection of blood glucose levels by continuous monitor. It does this by sending the blood glucose data through an algorithm that analyzes and makes the subsequent adjustments. The system has two modes. Manual mode lets the user choose the rate at which basal insulin is delivered. Auto mode regulates basal insulin levels from the CGM readings every five minutes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Yes, the terms are generally interchangeable. Lyophilization is more common in pharmaceutical and laboratory contexts, while freeze-drying appears widely in food science and general writing. Both describe removal of solvent by sublimation under vacuum after freezing.
Reduced pressure keeps the process below the triple point of water, so ice can sublimate directly to vapor. It also lowers the temperature needed for drying, which helps preserve heat-sensitive materials. Without vacuum, melting or boiling could occur instead of controlled sublimation.
The rate depends on heat transfer to the product and mass transfer of vapor through the dried layer. A cold condenser, adequate vacuum, and suitable shelf temperature all influence speed. Formulation properties such as solid content and collapse temperature also set practical limits.
Primary drying removes ice by sublimation at low pressure and low shelf temperature. Secondary drying removes bound water by raising the shelf temperature, often under the same vacuum. The two stages differ in the water state being removed.