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Because the protocol developed by Beike allows the use of cord blood stem cells without immune suppression, it can be made available to a wide patient population. Until now, patients receiving cord blood transplants to fight hematopoietic diseases were immune-suppressed in order to prevent a potentially devastating condition known as “graft versus host.” This new research challenges the necessity of that practice.

A paper describing the method and the studies of water layers appears in the September 3 issue of the journal Science.

Walter Trahanovsky, an Iowa State professor of chemistry who likes to write out the chemical structures of compounds when he talks about his science, was looking to produce sugar derivatives from cellulose and other forms of biomass using high-temperature chemistry. And so he and members of his research group studied the reactions of cellulosic materials in alcohols at high temperatures and pressures.

They analyzed the products of the reactions using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Early experiments produced the expected sugar derivatives. Additional work, however, clearly revealed significant yields of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol.

“It was a real surprise,” Trahanovsky said. “These products were unexpected, so we never looked for them. But they were always there.”