X-Message-Number: 6383
From:  (Brian Wowk)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Importance of Brain Cryopreservation
Date: 24 Jun 96 18:34:51 GMT
Message-ID: <>

David L. Evans writes:

> The real question is:  Will vitrification be a general enough procedure to 
> allow whole organisms to be vitrified and rewarmed and revived? 

        Unfortunately, no.  Vitrification as a general approach is
extremely promising, but each organ will likely require its own
special cocktail to avoid cryoprotective agent (CPA) toxicity.
The question we as cryonicists need to ask is what organ do we
want the CPA optimized for next?  I have argued that if our
intention is sufficiently resolute, the resources exist within
the cryonics community to make *the brain* the next target organ.

        With the kidney work likely to be completed within the
next one or two years, a rare window of opportunity is openning
up.  We can say to these researchers, look, here is X amount of
dollars for ten years, see what you can do now for brains.  They
themselves might regard the project as, well... peculiar, but
money talks.  If cryonicists don't step in with some kind of
offer, they are going to get grants from the Heart Foundation,
Liver Foundation, etc. etc. and be tied up with those projects
for another 10 years while cryonics technology languishes in
its current dismal state.  What a pathetic waste and lost
opportunity that would be.

 ***************************************************************************
 Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
 President           Human Cryopreservation Services   
    http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6383