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Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation Procedure Wins Brain Preservation Prize Page 12 March-April 2016 • Volume 37:2 Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation procedure Wins Brain Preservation Prize Page 12 Official Alcor Statement Concerning Marvin Minsky ISSN 1054-4305 Page 11 Charity Cases in Cryonics Page 22 $9.95 Improve Your Odds of a Good Cryopreservation You have your cryonics funding and contracts in place but have you considered other steps you can take to prevent problems down the road? ü Keep Alcor up-to-date about personal and medical changes. ü Update your Alcor paperwork to reflect your current wishes. ü Execute a cryonics-friendly Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. ü Wear your bracelet and talk to your friends and family about your desire to be cryopreserved. ü Ask your relatives to sign Affidavits stating that they will not interfere with your cryopreservation. ü Attend local cryonics meetings or start a local group yourself. ü Contribute to Alcor’s operations and research. Contact Alcor (1-877-462-5267) and let us know how we can assist you. Visit the ALCOR FORUMS www.alcor.org/forums/ Discuss Alcor and cryonics topics with other members and Alcor officials. • The Alcor Foundation • Financial • Cell Repair Technologies • Rejuvenation • Cryobiology • Stabilization • Events and Meetings Other features include pseudonyms (pending verification of membership status) and a private forum. Visit the ALCOR BLOG www.alcor.org/blog/ Your source for news about: • Cryonics technology • Speaking events and meetings • Cryopreservation cases • Employment opportunities • Television programs about cryonics Alcor is on Facebook Connect with Alcor members and supporters on our official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/alcor.life.extension.foundation Become a fan and encourage interested friends, family members, and colleagues to support us too. COVER STORY: PAGE 12 March-April 2016 • Volume 37:2 Aldehyde-Stabilized Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation Procedure Cryopreservation procedure Wins Wins Brain Preservation Prize Brain Preservation Prize Page 12 21st Century Medicine has won the Brain Preservation Prize by combining chemical fixation and vitrification. As can be read in this official document from the Brain Preservation Foundation, rabbit brains that were subjected to this procedure are indistinguishable Official Alcor Statement from controls. Concerning Marvin Minsky ISSN 1054-4305 Page 11 Charity Cases in Cryonics Page 22 $9.95 5 QUOD INCEPIMUS CONFICIEMUS Human Biopreservation Options: Advantages and Limitations The technology that has won the Brain Preservation Prize, “Aldehyde-StabilizedCryopreservation” (ASC), introduces another method of biopreservation for critically ill people. In his column, Aschwin de Wolf reviews the (theoretical) alternatives to conventional cryonics to date and their advantages and disadvantages. 11 Official Alcor Statement Concerning Marvin Minsky On January 24, 2016 cognitive scientist and artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky was pronounced legally dead following a cerebral hemorrhage. The Alcor Life Extension Foundation has issued an official statement concerning the question whether he has been cryopreserved or not. 22 Charity Cases in Cryonics Since it began in the 1960s cryonics has faced one major obstacle not connected either to its scientific feasibility or whether society is “ready” for it: the cost of the procedure. The high cost of cryonics has been an inhibiting factor, limiting the number of cases and also, in the early days, causing many cases to terminate. On the other hand, some have been cryopreserved who could not bear the cost on their own, through the charitable contributions of others. Cryonics charity cases through the years form an interesting group, which we examine here. www.alcor.org Cryonics / March-April 2016 3 CONTENTS 6 CEO Update Editorial Board In this CEO update, Alcor CEO Max More reflects on the recent Annual Saul Kent Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. Meeting decisions and his aims for membership growth, affordability, legal R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. developments, and media exposure. Editor 16 Alcor Position Statement on Brain Preservation Foundation Prize Aschwin de Wolf On a number of occasions Alcor has argued against offering liquid state chemical brain preservation as a credible biostasis option. Some of the Contributing Writers arguments against this do not apply to aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation Aschwin de Wolf and in this position statement Alcor outlines its assessment of ASC and what Max More it means for Alcor’s services and research priorities. Dirk Nemitz R. Michael Perry, Ph.D. 17 Groundbreaking Scientific Results Show that the Proposition of Carrie Wong Human Medical Biostasis has Potential The Institute for Evidence-Based Cryonics and the UK Cryonics and Cryopreservation Copyright 2016 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation Research Network issued a joint press release about the Brain Preservation All rights reserved. Prize and what the aldehyde-stabilized cryopreserved brain results mean for Reproduction, in whole or part, without cryonics and the idea of medical biostasis. permission is prohibited. 34 An Introduction to CRISPR: Part 1 Cryonics magazine is published bi-monthly. CRISPR (“clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”) refers to the unique organization of short, repeated DNA sequences found in the To subscribe to the printed edition genomes of bacteria and other microorganisms. These sequences are a vital and/or change your address, please call component of the immune system of simple lifeforms. Very recently scientists 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine have adapted CRISPR to target and modify DNA with unprecedented website: accuracy. This new technology seems poised to achieve a breakthrough in www.alcor.org/magazine treating genetic and viral diseases. Please note: If you change your address less than 38 2nd Cryonics Symposium in Germany a month before the magazine is mailed, it may From 4 to 5 October 2014, the German Society for Applied Biostasis be sent to your old address. (DGAB) held a symposium in Dresden. Speakers from Germany and other countries presented about cryonics and related topics. This brief account is Address correspondence to: Cryonics Magazine followed by the write-up of Aschwin de Wolf’s presentation. 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 40 Identification, Validation, and Implementation of New Cryonics Phone: 480.905.1906 Technologies Toll free: 877.462.5267 In an ideal world, promising cryonics technologies would be identified, Fax: 480.922.9027 followed by prompt validation and implementation. In the real world, however, there are multiple reasons why potential improvements in cryonics Letters to the Editor welcome: are not being recognized or endorsed. Even when the benefits of such [email protected] technologies appear evident, institutional and financial obstacles can prevent timely experimental validation and introduction. This article briefly reviews Advertising inquiries: the history of technological progress in cryonics, discusses the reasons that 480.905.1906 x113 delayed or postponed the introduction of superior technologies, and offers [email protected] solutions that may enable faster adoption of new advances. ISSN: 1054-4305 46 Membership Statistics Visit us on the web at www.alcor.org How many members, associate members, and patients does Alcor have and Alcor News Blog where do they live? http://www.alcor.org/blog/ 48 Resuscitation Update Mike Perry surveys the news and research to report on new developments that bring us closer to the resuscitation of cryonics patients. 4 Cryonics / March-April 2016 www.alcor.org Quod incepimus conficiemus Photo: Cryo-Care Equipment Corporation at 2340 E. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Bedford’s “home” in 1970 or 1971. HUMAN Biopreservation OPTIONS: Advantages and Limitations By Aschwin de Wolf n February 9, 2016 the Brain temperature or in a fridge in the liquid state. stabilized cryopreservation is that it renders Preservation Foundation announced While some people consider such a procedure the tissue completely dead by contemporary Othat the cryobiology company “better than nothing”, Alcor does not viability criteria by creating irreversible cross- 21st Century Medicine had won their small support this kind of “chemopreservation” links between biomolecules. In other words, mammal brain preservation prize. The team at as a long term care option due to concerns at a molecular level structure is radically the 21st Century Medicine used a procedure about long-term degradation. An extensive altered. In terms of research aimed at named Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation critique of liquid state chemopreservation reversible biopreservation, this is a dead end. (ASC) to preserve the ultrastructure of the can be found in my article ‘Chemical Brain Conventional cryo, conventional chemo, brain in a “near-perfect” condition. It is Preservation and Human Suspended and a combination of the two are the important to understand how ASC differs Animation’ (http://www.alcor.org/Library/ three most discussed options of human from both conventional cryopreservation html/chemopreservation2.html) biopreservation. Other, hypothetical and other human biostasis alternatives to What is notable about the procedure that possibilities include (a) vitrification with understand its merits and limitations. won the small mammal brain preservation agents with much higher glass transition In conventional cryopreservation (which prize is that it combines both aldehyde temperatures that permit warmer
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