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Is it possible to come back from the dead? Australia’s first body-freezing facility explores the boundaries of mortality – Neos Kosmos
Freezing your body after death with the hope of coming back to life one day sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.
Southern Cryonics, the first body-freezing facility in the Southern Hemisphere, tries to turn this idea into reality.
Were sort of in a race against time, says Southern Cryonics director, Peter Tsolakides, to Neos Kosmos.
Cryonics, coming from the Greek word kros for icy cold, involves the preservation of legally declared dead bodies at extremely low temperatures for potential future revival.
The facility in Holbrook, New South Wales, uses this practice, with the expectation that one day, advancements in medical technology and science will restore patients to health and in the young body.
But the timeframe of this future remains uncertain.
Tsolakides says once you preserve a body, you can keep it (stored) for thousands of years, but the chance of coming back depends on when you freeze it.
A matter of life after death
He says, currently 50 people, are willing to take the risk for a chance at life after death, and the number is growing.
This group consists of 35 investors each contributing $50,000 to $70,000, and 15 subscribers or customers who have paid $150,000 through life insurance.
Tsolakides says there are no guarantees, despite how great the dream of being brought back from the dead might be for some people.
Most of them know something about it (cryonics), but they also look at it and say, look, theres no guarantees, but theres a chance.
And that chance versus being buried in the ground or cremated is a much higher chance coming back.
He estimates the chance of a well-preserved body being revived in 200 years to be around 20%.
He says although its hard to predict what the world will be like in be like in 1,000 years, bodies might be revived when technological advancements have found the key to immortality.
In the real world, nobody will be dying, and most diseases will be cured. So, we will know how to prevent death in a sense, and the next step is to bring back those who have already died, but in a good condition.
Tsolakides says that while they dont know how to bring a person back to life, current developments give you inklings, of what the future is going to be like.
He says progress has to start somewhere, and right now billions are invested in medical research aimed at disease cures.
This includes groups working on brain revival, organ regeneration, cloning, and advancements in artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.
How does cryonics work?
When a person is declared legally dead at the hospital, a cooling process begins.
Chemicals are used to stabilise the body, lowering it to about ice temperature.
Once taken to the funeral home, the body is further cooled and infused with an antifreeze substance until it reaches about -80C.
Next, it goes to the cryonics facility, gradually cooled to -180C and preserved below that temperature, in a large vacuum flask container filled with liquid nitrogen.
Southern Cryonics Greek-Australian director says, theres a brief window of a few hours after legal death, where no deterioration occurs to the body.
Once preserved in liquid nitrogen, it can be stored for thousands of years due to almost no chemical or biological activity at that temperature.
Its a race against time to keep the temperature going down, he says.
But is it possible to freeze a human brain to revive it later?
If you catch them (bodies) under our optimal time, very little damage is occurring to the brain, but that doesnt mean that 200 years from now, that damage cant be repaired, Tsolakides says.
The facility can currently hold up to 40 patients, with each container fitting 4 bodies, but can expand to hold up to six or seven hundred patients if necessary.
The birth and evolution of Southern Cryonics
Tsolakides got interested in cryonics from a young age.
When he came back to Australia around 2012 after working overseas, he saw there were only cryonics facilities in the US and Russia.
He connected with like-minded people and talked about building one in Australia.
We started getting what we call founding members, says Tsolakides, each contributing $50,000 to kickstart the project, eventually totalling 35 members of a non-profit organisation.
We started the facility and that was how it sort of developed.
He says, they chose Holbrook, a small town with about 1,500 people, for a few reasons.
Land there wasnt expensive, and it was halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, making it accessible to over half of Australias population.
Holbrooks nearby Albury airport is crucial for quick patient transportation, and the support from the local council made the decision easier.
Another advantage is its proximity to liquid nitrogen suppliers along the Hume Highway, crucial for the facility.
Holbrooks low history of natural disasters made it a safe choice after a thorough analysis of several years.
The legalities
Tsolakides says Southern Cryonics got all the official approvals from the NSW Department of Health and the local council, to operate as a cemetery but uses a recognised funeral home for mortuary work.
The government groups that we work with helped us a lot. It wasnt like we got resistance or anything like that.
A good idea but not for everyone
Tsolakides was born in Israel to Greek parents.
His mother was from the Greek island of Syros, and his father from Athens.
They briefly lived in Greece before moving to Australia in 1955 when Tsolakides was five years old.
He has a degree in Chemistry and later pursued one in Business Administration.
Throughout his career, he worked primarily in marketing for an oil company.
He grew up and lived in Melbourne for many years before moving to Sydney, a place he now calls home.
His passion in cryonics sparked at about18 after reading Robert Ettingers book, The Prospect of Immortality.
At that age, he didnt worry much about death.
He assumed this will be everywhere, by the time he got old, but soon realised that very few people worldwide were interested in it.
He says that while some are intrigued by cryonics, most view it as a good idea but not for themselves.
Even the US organisation have about five to six thousand members only, with 400 or 500 people suspended, and theyve been going for 50 years.
But that didnt stop him for pursuing his curiosity around cryonics.
Keeping an eye on scientific developments
Tsolakides is determined to improve their techniques and increase success chances, despite challenges or doubts about cryonics.
He says Southern Cryonics along with overseas organisations is monitoring the best way to store a body, leaving the revival work to other scientists.
Its (suspending the body) physically possible to do it now, he says, but of course, you can always improve the processes.
While cryonics remains a controversial field and the chances of revival seem low now, it is yet to be seen whether future technology will ever be able to bring the dead back to life.
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Is it possible to come back from the dead? Australia's first body-freezing facility explores the boundaries of mortality - Neos Kosmos
CRISPR technologies fuelling haematological innovations – European Pharmaceutical Review
Greater use of CRISPR-based therapies in clinical trials is expected to drive further advancements in precision medicine, GlobalData states.
There has been a notable rise in licensing agreements for innovator drugs incorporating clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based technology for gene therapies over the past five years, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.
These agreements have amassed a total deal value of $21 billion. Of note, between 2020 to 2022, there was a remarkable surge in deal worth. For agreements relating to or involving treatments for haematological disorders, the total deal value reached $1.8 billion, the research found.
For instance, the approval of Casgevy in the US in December 2023 signified a breakthrough in gene therapy. Vertex Pharmaceuticals treatment was subsequently the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy to be granted a marketing authorisation by the European Commission (EC) in February 2024.
Innovator drugs harnessing CRISPR technologies saw 182 percent growth in total licensing agreement deal value from $5.6 billion in 2020 to $15.8 billion in 2022. Among the top three therapy areas, oncology represented over half of the total deal value with $11.9 billion, followed by immunology with $6.7 billion, and central nervous system with $2.2 billion, Ophelia Chan, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData explained.
GlobalData highlighted that the largest CRISPR-based deal of 2023 was Eli Lilys subsidiary, Prevail Therapeutics gaining rights to Scribe Therapeuticss CRISPR X-Editing (XE) technologies. In a deal potentially worth over $1.57 billion, the agreement seeks to advance in vivotherapies for targets that cause serious neurological and neuromuscular diseases.
The increasing presence of CRISPR-based therapies in clinical trials is anticipated to fuel further advancements in precision medicine
CRISPR technology is transforming targeted gene therapies for diverse unmet diseases by precisely targeting diverse genomic sites, promising tailored treatments and improved patient outcomes. The increasing presence of CRISPR-based therapies in clinical trials is anticipated to fuel further advancements in precision medicine, Chan stated.
In other recent gene therapy news, last month the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised Lenmeldy (atidarsagene autotemcel) for children with early-onset metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD).
Anti-Cancer Therapeutics, Big Pharma, Biopharmaceuticals, business news, Clinical Development, Clinical Trials, Data Analysis, Drug Development, Drug Markets, Drug Safety, Gene therapy, Industry Insight, Research & Development (R&D), Technology, Therapeutics
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CRISPR technologies fuelling haematological innovations - European Pharmaceutical Review
CRISPR Therapeutics Joins Rank Of Stocks With 95-Plus Composite Rating – Investor’s Business Daily
CRISPR Therapeutics Joins Rank Of Stocks With 95-Plus Composite Rating Investor's Business Daily
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CRISPR Therapeutics Joins Rank Of Stocks With 95-Plus Composite Rating - Investor's Business Daily
University of Pennsylvania Gene Therapy Program cuts staff by 25%, report says – The Business Journals
University of Pennsylvania Gene Therapy Program cuts staff by 25%, report says The Business Journals
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University of Pennsylvania Gene Therapy Program cuts staff by 25%, report says - The Business Journals