X-Message-Number: 17351
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:49:15 -0700
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Tips for copying...  [James Swayze]
References: <>

 Thanks James; just like you I collect all kinds of articles,
which contain information on life extension technology and
related topics.  I used your instructions and saved this article.
It worked like a charm.

>Example: From the above URL's article copying the entire title
>"Protein protecting freezing tissues is synthesised" elicits the
>warning but choosing only "rotein protecting freezing tissues is
>synthesise", does not. Now paste your ill gotten gains to a text
>(Notepad) or document (MS Word) file.

I had no problem blocking and copying the whole line, as long as
you make sure, that the blocking does not 'snap' out to the left
of the "P".  You *must* stay within the cell, the limits of  which
in my case were marked by bold dotted lines.

Now as far as the substance is concerned, synthesising the
Antarctic fish ice blocker may have significant value in large
scale application, where cost is of importance.  But as far as
cryonics is concerned, our good friends at 21CM
http://www.21cm.com/ appear to be way ahead of these people, by
successfully synthesising the much more effective beetle ice
blocker.

Here is an excerpt from Charles Platt s account of a seminar
given by the 21CM researchers in November 1999. (Full text at:

 http://www.jps.net/cryonics/21cm/p1.htm

(Unfortunately the fellows at 21CM are no longer as forthcoming
with their infomation.  You now have to pay $35.- a pop, if you
want updated information on the topic)

Quote: (snip)
The trick he tried was an antifreeze protein found in Antarctic
fish. When he added it to conventional cryoprotectants in a
standard salt solution (the solution that carries the
cryoprotectant into and out of organs during perfusion), it
achieved barely measurable results. However, when he used a new
solution to "carry" the cryoprotectant, and then added the
antifreeze protein, he reduced the amount of ice formed in a
dilute version of VS4-1A known as VS4 by a factor of 1,000.
He also tried a third "vehicle solution" designed to enhance a
different antifreeze protein found in a species of beetles. This
reduced ice formation even more effectively, by an additional
factor of 10 when no protein was present, and by an additional
factor of 1,000 when beetle antifreeze protein was present. The
practical bottom-line result was that he could achieve
vitrification with a slow cooling rate of 1 degree Celsius per
minute--which is practical for human kidneys--even using a
version of VS4-1A that was diluted to the point of virtual
nontoxicity.

Also he found that the beetle protein would eliminate another
intractable problem: ice crystals forming when a vitrified sample
is rewarmed. Typically, a sample has to be rewarmed extremely
fast to get it from its deep subzero temperature to above
freezing point without ice crystals causing catastrophic damage
along the way. Since raising the temperature of large organs
rapidly is quite difficult, zero- damage rewarming has always
been a formidable challenge. But with Fahy's new vehicle and 1
percent beetle protein, he found he could avoid ice formation at
a warming rate of just 1 degree per minute, even with a solution
so dilute as to be essentially nontoxic.

"This is wonderful," he told the audience at his presentation,
"but beetle protein is hard to come by, and is expensive. We
wanted to come up with our own solution, our own ice-blocking
agent, which is dirt cheap. Why not? Let's ask for the moon,
maybe we'll get it. And luckily Brian found the moon for us, and
now Brian will deliver it."


Ice Blockers

Brian Wowk took over from Gregory Fahy at this point and
described his search for "synthetic ice blockers, hoping they
could be made more inexpensively than natural antifreeze
proteins." He mentioned that the beetle protein used in Fahy's
experiments costs about $1,000 per milligram. Some researchers
are working to synthesize a substitute, but Wowk believes even
this will be relatively expensive, plus its ice-blocking action
will be most effective near freezing point. He wanted a
substitute that would work at the much lower temperatures
required for organ storage.

"We were successful in this, almost completely successful," he
said. "We were able to devise a family of synthetic ice-blocking
molecules that are very inexpensive, a small fraction of the cost
of even fish antifreeze proteins."
Unquote

Best,
Olaf

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