From: mike@engr.latech.edu (Micheal B. O'Neal)
Subject:  Cryonics Research (Re: Cryonics Institute VS Alcor)
Reply-To: mike@engr.latech.edu
Organization: Louisiana Tech University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 20:05:41 GMT



In article @rpi.edu, kached@vccnw03.its.rpi.edu (Daniel Franklin Kacher Jr.) writes:

> Can anyone outline the difference between these two groups?
> I've read Alcor's literature.  I've spoken to someone at Alcor.
> He said he had a masters in Biochemistry.  He claims he's the most
> educated fellow there.  He also said they are doing zero research due to lack of 
> funding.  How do they expect to advance the field at this rate?
> What's IC doing?  How can I get a hold of their literature?
> 
> -Dan
> 

Dan,

There are three "active" cryonics organizations: Alcor, American Cryonics Society 
(ACS), Cryonics Institute (CI).  Alcor and CI provide their own suspension and
long term care services.  TransTime (a for profit company) is the primary service
provider for ACS.  The contact numbers for these organizations (taken from the 
FAQ part 6) are reproduced below.

    Alcor Life Extension Foundation
    12327 Doherty St.
    Riverside, CA 92503
    (714) 736-1703 & (800) 367-2228
    FAX (714) 736-6917
    Email: alcor@cup.portal.com

    American Cryonics Society (ACS)
    P.O. Box 761
    Cupertino, CA 95015
    (408) 734-4111
    FAX (408) 973-1046, 24 hr FAX (408) 255-5433

    Cryonics Institute (CI)
    24443 Roanoke
    Oak Park, MI 48237
    (313) 547-2316 & (313) 548-9549

    Trans Time, Inc.
    10208 Pearmain St.
    Oakland, CA 94603
    510-639-1955
    Email: quaife@garnet.berkeley.edu

I encourage you to contact each of these organizations.

For what its worth here is my personal "summary" of the research programs of each 
of these organizations.  I should point out, first of all, that no one seems to be
working directly on perfecting suspended animation.  The problem is too hard and
too few funds are available.  Instead, cryonics research tends to concentrate on 
reducing damage to patients.

Alcor has the largest suspension program.  It is currently doing little or no 
research, probably due to the strain of intense legal battles it was forced to 
engage in to ensure its survival.  These legal disputes have been successfully 
concluded.  In the past Alcor has been VERY active in: hypothermia experiments
(using dogs), perfusate research, patient preparation and patient transport (e.g.
designing and building the Portable Ice Bath (PIB) which quickly lowers a patient's
body temperature to reduce the time spent in warm ischemia;  designing and 
implementing a system to slowly and evenly cool a patient to dry ice temperature).
They have also done some studies on categorizing the damage (at a gross level)
done to patients by the cryonics process.

CI has contentrated in the past on patient storage research.  They have designed 
and fabricated their own patient storage units, which they claim have very high
storage efficiency (very low rates of liquid nitrogen boil off).  Recently, they
have begun to investigate the efficacy of perfusate solutions to determine, in a
general way, how well these solutions prevent ice damage.  Their methods appear 
crude, but the work is interesting.

ACS is not directly involved in research.  I am unsure of the work being done at
TransTime (ACS's primary service provider).  BioTime, a company that was formed 
by some ACS members, has had some success developing organ preservation solutions.  
These solutions should have direct application to the early phases of the cryonic
suspension process.  BioTime's solutions are designed to extend the amount of time
an organ can be maintained in a viable condition at temperatures above the 
freezing point of water.

Two other researchers to note are Mike Darwin (former Research Director of Alcor)
and Greg Fahy.  Mike has started a company called BioPreservation to conduct
cryonics related research.  Greg is a cryobiologist employed by the American
Red Cross.  He is an expert in organ preservation using vitrification (a very low 
temperature glass-like state).  The aim of Greg's work is indefinite organ storage 
for transplantation.  His work has direct application to cryonics: it promises
large scale reductions in the amount of damage done by the cryonics process in
the near-term, and may provide a path to reversible suspended animation in the
long-term.

---

Micheal B. O'Neal                           Louisiana Tech University
Mike@engr.LaTech.edu                        Department of Computer Science
                                            Ruston, Louisiana   71272


Newsgroups: sci.cryonics