HANOVER — A team of researchers based in Hanover has discovered new microorganisms in the frozen tundra of Alaska that could lead to innovations that prevent ice from forming on aircraft and protect people in cold climates.
The discoveries were made as part of a joint project between U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory — known as CRREL and is based in Hanover — and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, based in Arlington, Va.
The multi-year project, which focuses on developing products from the microorganisms to assist the military, is titled “Ice Control for Cold Environments,” also referred to as ICE.
“I think that’s what’s really exciting about the work is learning how animals,” as well plants and other organisms, “evolve certain strategies to help them adapt to their changing environment and how (we) could use that knowledge to be able to help humans adapt to their ever-changing environment,” Dr. Jeffrey Zaleski, a DARPA program manager who is overseeing the ICE research project, said in a video interview.
Around 140 scientists throughout the country are working on the project, with the majority based in colder-weather states. The project is expected to last around 3½ years and is a little over halfway through, Zaleski said.
Microbiologists ended up finding 26 new species from a sample of permafrost, which is ground that has been frozen for at least two years.
After bringing the samples back to a CRREL laboratory and studying them, microbiologists found that they can grow when it is cold, Dr. Robyn Barbato, who leads CRREL’s soil microbiology team, said in a video interview..
“You can’t see them with your naked eye,” Barbato said about the size of the microorganisms she’s been studying in the lab.
Products created from the organisms may include ones that prevent ice from forming on planes or lotions that people can apply to protect their skin, Barbato said.
“Then maybe you could be out there in the cold for longer and you wouldn’t risk getting something like frostbite,” said Barbato, who lives in North Thetford.
Between 2024 and 2025, there was a 42% increase in cold weather injuries for U.S. Armed Forces members, including frostbite and hypothermia.
“To know that it’s going to go somewhere and be used, it’s so fulfilling and rewarding … particularly for the military, that we’re helping our soldiers to be safer,” Barbato said. “Ice on a plane is really problematic or frostbite is really challenging so that’s really rewarding too.”
Product development is scheduled to start this summer, Zaleski said.
“I’ve seen some pretty incredible demonstrations already that suggest we will have some products that come out of this,” he said, though the process will take at least a couple of years.
There’s also potential for products that could strengthen ice to make it safer and easier to drive on. While the research focuses on creating products that benefit the military, civilians could also benefit.
“When it’s tested in the military, it’s getting developed, the idea is to transition it to a commercial entity,” Barbato said. “I ski, and so if there was a frostbite cream, I would totally use it.”