Tomorrow Bio CEO & Cofounder Emil Kendziorra on why cryopreservation could be our best hope when medicine can no longer save us.
Extending human healthspan, allowing for a greater number of years lived in good health and free from debilitating age-related diseases, is a significant and achievable goal. This is distinct, however, from the extension of maximal lifespan – the absolute length of human life one can live. Both are important. Who would want to die when they just came back from a hiking trip with friends for their 90th birthday?
While the advancements in medical technology and research continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare, and are undeniably successful in improving the quality of life and extending healthspan, they have yet to make a significant impact on the absolute length of human beings. It is essential to distinguish between the achievable goal of a longer healthspan and the more elusive goal of extending the maximum human lifespan.
And, we need to remember, that even if we can figure out health- and lifespan extension in the next few decades, it will not be early enough for our parents, grandparents and those who are of advanced age today.
Even with decades of longevity research and billions and billions of dollars spent on age related diseases, as of today, we have not extended maximal lifespan by even a day! The likelihood that this is going to change any time soon is slim to none.
Now, apart from accepting death (not an option for me), there is only one alternative that I’m aware of: human biostasis.
Human biostasis, also known as cryopreservation, is a scientific process that preserves a human body in a state of complete “biological pause” with the hope of future revival. This is achieved by cooling the body to extremely low temperatures while avoiding ice crystal formation by using advanced cryoprotective agents. Typically this is done using liquid nitrogen at which temperature all biological processes are stopped, including those that cause aging and decay. The primary goal of human biostasis is to preserve the potential for life by pausing it until future medical advancements can address the cause of death, aging, and restore the individual to full health. This could potentially allow people to overcome currently incurable diseases, extend their lifespan, and live happy ever after in the future
In short, the process works as follows:
1. Stabilization: As soon as possible after legal death, the body is cooled and blood is replaced with a cryoprotectant solution to prevent ice crystal formation, which would otherwise damage cells.
2. Vitrification: The body is further cooled to between -140°C and -196°C, at which point the cryoprotectant solution solidifies into a glass-like state without forming ice crystals.
3. Storage: The vitrified (≈glass-like) body is placed in a cryogenic storage container and maintained at extremely low temperatures until future revival is possible – no matter how long that might take.
Fundamentally, human biostasis should be considered a last effort to maintain a chance of life in the future. It is only done if all other medical interventions have failed to save the patient. Or to phrase it as a simple question: if push comes to shove, do you want to be cremated or do you want to be cryopreserved? If I ever get into a situation where I need to make that choice, my answer is clear…
Of course, it’s not required (and in fact not recommended) to wait until the last minute to make the decision for cryopreservation and sign the required documents. Most people sign up early in their lives when they are absolutely healthy, just as a backup. And since funding can be provided via life insurance the monthly cost is very manageable.
Now, the big question is, does it work? Model organisms like C elegans can fully be cryopreserved and revived, they reproduce and keep their memory. Of course, that’s “worm memory,” but still… Organs can be cryopreserved and re-transplanted in rats and rabbits with the animal surviving and the organ functioning. In humans, you can do the first part; it is possible to cryopreserve humans and bring them down to cryogenic temperature without ice crystals in the brain, but it is not yet possible to rewarm and revive them. In fact, it will likely take many decades until this will potentially be possible. But remember, the alternative is cremation. While I can’t say how high the probability is that cryopreservation will be reversible in the future, I’m very confident in saying that the chance is much higher than with cremation. From an ethical standpoint, it’s similar to compassionate use, the concept in medicine that allows patients after extensive informed consent to use drugs not yet approved by regulatory agencies. The logic here is that if the alternative is death, we should try everything. Cryopreservation is the same: you make the decision for yourself, and it’s done at a time when everything else has been tried to save you! It’s never done early, only has a last ditch effort and with full, informed consent.
My team and I are spending all of our time making this work, and will do so for however long it takes. At Tomorrow.bio, we’re building the infrastructure and teams to provide cryopreservation without delay; at the European Biostasis Foundation we offer long-term storage and fund research. And at CryoDAO we initiate and fund moonshot research projects.
Once it works, it will fundamentally change our definition of death and life. In my opinion, for the better.
For now, you need to decide if you care about living longer. And, if it comes to it, do you want to be cremated or cryopreserved?
About Emil Kendziorra
Dr Emil Kendziorra graduated summa cum laude from the University of Göttingen and did several years of cancer research in the hopes of contributing to longevity science.
After realizing how slowly life-extension research was progressing he made a pivot into entrepreneurship. Emil was signed up at Alcor for several years but realized that there was a need for a cryopreservation organization based in Europe and for more advancement in the field.
After founding and selling two companies, Emil has decided to dedicate the next decades of his life to advancing medical biostasis and cryomedicine. He has no intention of ever starting another company and considers Tomorrow.bio his life’s work.
Photographs courtesy of Tomorrow.bio
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