The Impulso Podcast E52: Live, die, repeat: Fernando Pinheiro’s journey from internet founder to freezing dead people
27 snips
Jan 12, 2024 In this discussion, Fernando Pinheiro, a health-tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Tomorrow.bio, shares his incredible transition from internet startups to the frontier of human cryopreservation. He delves into the motivations behind choosing cryopreservation and the psychological complexities at play. The conversation touches on the groundbreaking advancements in biostasis, including technological challenges and ethical considerations of potentially reviving legally dead individuals. Pinheiro even reveals the surprising numbers behind the current global cryopreserved population!
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Death As A Process, Preservation As Option
- Cryopreservation is framed like choosing an experimental parachute when facing inevitable death or aging.
- Fernando stresses death is a process and preserving brain structure could allow future repair and continued operation.
Physical Limits, Not Just Biology
- The main technical bottleneck is physical: perfusing cryoprotectants fast and controlling temperature gradients across tissues.
- Current cryoprotectants are toxic and complex organisms face uneven cooling and thermal stress.
Rat Kidneys Rewarmed With Iron Particles
- University of Minnesota researchers preserved rat kidneys for 100 days using iron particles and induction rewarming, then achieved 100% survival after transplant.
- That experiment shows controlled rewarming could scale to larger organs and improve organ transplantation windows.