(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/National Institutes of Health)
The human brain can now possibly survive cryonics. Researchers could revive frozen human brain tissue without damage using a new technique.
Human Brain Tissues Survive Freezing Without Damage
Researchers are getting closer to preserving brains. In a new study, scientists were able to thaw brain tissue without damaging it after it had been cryogenically frozen. The neurons still worked and sent signals as normal.
Professor Zhicheng Shao, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, created a sophisticated chemical combination known as MEDY that shields neurons from harm while frozen. He is open to the possibility that the findings could be applied to cryonics, a long-held dream of futurists.
"MEDY could be used for the cryopreservation of human brain tissue," Shao said.
This should be good news to futurists like Steve Aoki and Peter Thiel, who are betting on freezing their bodies once they pass away.
As Thiel admitted in a 2023 interview, we still don't fully understand how to make cryopreservation work for the body as a whole and the brain in particular. However, several millionaires still opt to use cryonics, hoping to be revived in the future.
Full-body preservation at Michigan-based Cryonics Lab begins at $28,000, and since 2006, the number of clients has more than tripled, reaching over 1,975 permanent residents.
Scientists have yet to agree on a foolproof method for keeping the brain safe from freezing. Still, every cryonics company claims to have a proprietary formula for preserving bodies and brains.
Since water makes up about 80% of brain cells, ice crystals can occasionally develop when the cells are frozen. All of our cells are susceptible to distortion and damage from them, but fragile brain cells are particularly vulnerable, rendering them useless when thawed.
Thus, Professor Shao and his colleagues sought an alternative material to immerse brain tissue to keep it cool and prevent aging without dealing with crystallization.
After much trial and error, the team developed a concoction called MEDY--- with four ingredients—methylcellulose, ethylene glycol, DMSO, and Y27632—that enabled them to freeze the tissue without causing damage. The brain tissue emerged unharmed and was revived with full ability to operate normally.
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What Is Cryonics?
Cryonics prolongs life by employing below-freezing temperatures to halt aging and use emerging medical technologies to restore health.
According to Nick Bostrom of The Case Against Aging, the idea of cryonics is "optimistic," leading specialists to nanotechnology and raising the possibility of reanimating cryonics patients.
If life's fundamental structures can be maintained, it can be stopped and restarted. Human embryos are frequently kept in frigid temperatures for years on end. It has been known that adult people can withstand cooling to levels that stop their heart, brain, and all other organs from working for up to an hour.
Deep cooling occurs when the patient is cooled to -196° C. The goal of long-term care is to preserve bodies for many years so they can be revived in the future.
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