350 corpses stored in liquid nitrogen await immortality. But detractors say the brain’s complexity is a major stumbling block.
21st Century Medicine (21CM) is a cryobiology research company whose core mission is to develop a cryopreservation protocol sufficiently benign that whole, donated human organs could be vitrified (stored below −130 degrees Celsius without ice formation) and rewarmed when needed for transplantation –an incredibly ambitious goal that has so far eluded medical researchers. 21CM’s scientists are the original pioneers of whole organ vitrification and have been diligently working on the technique for decades. A significant milestone of their progress toward that goal is their demonstration work on rabbit kidneys. Two of their most relevant publications are “Cryopreservation of organs by vitrification: perspectives and recent advances” (Fahy, Wowk, Wu, Phan, Rasch, Chang & Zendejas 2004) and “Physical and biological aspects of renal vitrification” (Fahy, Wowk, Pagotan, Chang, Phan, Thomson & Phan 2009). These papers are a fantastic resource for anyone interested in just how difficult it is to cryopreserve large organs (and by extension whole animals) for long-term storage with the intent on later recovery of biological function. In short, it is incredibly difficult but progress is slowly being made.
The state-of-the-art whole organ vitrification techniques developed by 21CM are the basis of the human cryopreservation protocols used by some cryonics companies (e.g. Alcor). This is made clear in Alcor’s 2004 publication in the New York Academy of Sciences “The Arrest of Biological Time as a Bridge to Engineered Negligible Senescence” (Lemler, Harris, Platt & Huffman 2004).
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Sirtuins can be activated by a lack of amino acids or of sugar, or through an increase in NAD. — David Sinclair If you have not heard of #davidsinclair then it is time you have. he is at the forefront of anti aging research and one of my heroes. While we wait for the miracle pills there are alot of thing we can do to help us age better already. #biohacking #biohacker
Can a single molecule extend lifespan?
For most of their lives, our hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)—which produce all of our blood and immune cells—are quiet and inactive. But they also are the toughest cells in the blood system, able to survive exposure to levels of radiation or viral infections that kill most other blood cells.
A new study from researchers in Columbia’s Stem Cell Initiative has discovered how HSCs cheat death, which could lead to new therapies for blood cancers and other diseases related to aging and improve stem cell transplantation.
There’s only a few days left before our second conference in New York City takes place, and June has brought a lot of exciting news, such as the results of UNITY’s senolytic human trial, as well as a number of episodes of LifeXtenShow, our new YouTube show that is now a little over a month old already. Let’s dig into the details!
LEAF News
It’s called cognitive reserve, and it’s the phenomenon of the mind’s resistance to damage of the brain. It’s also the subject of not only an upcoming new data and biomedical sample resource, but also a related request for information (RFI) from the NIA and a first-of-its-kind workshop in September.
The push to study cognitive reserve in more depth across the scientific disciplines was born out of recommendations from the Cognitive Aging Summit III. Some 300 researchers attended the summit in Bethesda, Maryland in 2017. Coordinated by the NIA of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and supported by the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, the summit centered on age-related brain and cognitive changes, with a particular focus on issues related to cognitive resilience and reserve. According to the NIA, investigators from around the world delivered presentations and engaged in discussion “about some of the most important scientific questions relating to the biological, physiological, social and behavioral aspects of reserve and resilience in aging individuals. Attendees also discussed strategies to preserve and bolster cognitive function during aging.”
Advance could mean ‘affordable off-the-shelf therapy’ to treat age-related macular degeneration, the leading causes of sight loss in the UK.
We’re now rapidly approaching a pivotal moment in the history of this planet, when through scientific discovery an intelligent species could become a race of demigods, THE RACE OF THE IMMORTALS.
It’s quite achievable now. In fact, that will probably happen in two stages: First stage — we have to extend our lifespan with ever-improving Biotechnology. Aging is declared a desease, and around 2029, with the advances in Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence, we will be able start to reverse aging and add more than one year every year to an average life expectancy.
So if you’re alive in 2030, chances are you’ll live to 100 and beyond. What life would be like on the other side, when you know you can live indefinitely long? Well, we’ll get used to it and adjust accordingly. We’ll merge into the Global Brain, and emerge as the Global Mind.
To the scientists here, could humans live for 300 years?
Those portions of the modern longevity community interested in bringing an end to aging and extending healthy human life span indefinitely tend to be the older portions, people who have been a part of the broader movement for quite some time. Newcomers tend to be more moderate, aiming at lesser goals. Perhaps this is a result of the successful projects, such as the SENS Research Foundation and Methuselah Foundation, tending to moderate their rhetoric as they attract a broader and larger base of support. I think that this road to moderation might be a problem, and that there is thus a continued role for those who loudly declaim that the goal is to control aging absolutely, via new medical technology, and that the natural consequence of that control is healthy, active, youthful life that extends for centuries or more.
