From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Fri Dec 03 1999 - 21:23:52 MST
I'm very excited about this Life Extension Technologies conference Alcor
Foundation is putting on in 2000. Speakers are listed below.
** Fourth Alcor Conference on Life Extension Technologies **
www.alcor.org
June 17-18, 2000: Mark Your Calendars Today!
The world is changing rapidly. Only a few years ago, most
people considered mammalian cloning to be no more than
science fiction. Repeated successes in this area, however,
have made it a reality today. More importantly, medical
technologies like cloning and the use of embryonic stem cells
to regenerate tissues, promise to make it possible to reverse all
the major degenerative diseases within our own lifetimes.
Even aging itself is under very heavy attack by today’s
biological and medical technologies.
The Fourth Alcor Conference on Life Extension
Technologies is a meeting of scientists, technologists and
individuals who are working in fields leading toward the
expansion of human health and longevity.
Conference Sponsors:
** Primary Sponsor: Alcor Life Extension Foundation
** Co-Sponsor: Foresight Institute
** Academic Sponsors:
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
Medicina Interna Gerontogeriatria y Medicina Anti-Envejecimiento, A.C.
** Corporate Sponsors:
Principal Sponsor: Future Electronics
** Event Sponsors: James Halperin Foundation, Voxtran, Inc.
** General Sponsor: BioTransport, Inc.
** Supporting Sponsor: NanoTechnology Magazine
** Basic Sponsor: Life Extension Vitamin Supplies
SPEAKERS AND ABSTRACTS
Glenna Burmer, MD, PhD
Title: Identifying Aging Genes by Using DNA Microarrays
DNA Microarrays or "gene chips" are one of the most powerful methods in
biotechnology for simultaneously analyzing the expression of thousands of
human genes in human diseases. LifeSpan is building a database of gene
expression in human aging and the diseases of aging using microarrays and
methods of high throughput localization to find candidates that may be the
drug targets for the treatment of aging diseases. Data will be presented on
genes that are up-regulated or down-regulated in aging, those that are drug
targets or potential diagnostic markers, and those for which a function is
not yet known, but are clearly aging-associated. The high throughput nature
of
this type of technology is changing the way discoveries are being made in
both the field of aging as well as medicine in general.
Fred Chamberlain, BBE
Title: Bioimpedance
Bioimpedance, a biological electrical characteristic where tissues with
intact cell membranes behave very differently from tissues that have
undergone
cell membrane breakdown, is sustained for extended periods after cessation
of heartbeat and breathing. Automated means of comparatively evaluating
cryostasis protocols, as well as means for monitoring and comparing specific
cryotransport operations, will be reported in the context of early
experimentation and (if circumstances have permitted) actual cryotransports.
Eric K. Drexler, PhD
Title: The Conservative Treatment of Transient Inviability
or Your computer crashed -- shall I throw it out?
Emerging nanotechnologies will lead to cellular-scale robotic surgical
devices able to sense and repair tissues with molecular precision. Those of
us who stay intact until this technology arrives could achieve and keep good
health indefinitely. Traditional medicine discards patients if their vital
processes re interrupted for more than a few minutes. In light of the
prospects for future repair, this treatment - physical destruction of
potentially healthy human beings -- seems
regrettable. Physicians wishing to save lives
should instead recommend treatments that keep patients intact for restoration
using the next generation of medical technologies.
Gregory M. Fahy, PhD
Title: Cryobiological Research at 21st Century Medicine
21st Century Medicine is probing a broad range of problems in cryobiology.
A central aspect is our attempt to demonstrate successful cryopreservation of
mammalian organs, particularly the kidney. Construction of perfusion
equipment, new surgical approaches, our new surgical staff, and initial
results of perfusion with novel, low-toxicity vitrification solutions will be
described.
James J. Hughes, PhD
Title: Our Evolving Definitions of Death: Looking Ahead
The definition of death varies cross-culturally. "Death" has also changed
radically in the West in the last thirty years. The shift from circulation
and respiration-based definitions of death to "whole brain death" has left us
in an unstable compromise. Just as mechanical heart-lung aids forced us from
body to brain, advances in remediation of brain injuries will force us to
grapple with questions about the integrity and continuity of personhood.
Cryonics will be a part of a group of therapeutic modalities that will
force a new personal identity-based concept of rights. The question may
shift from
"Live or dead?" to "What can we do with/who controls various kinds of
bodies, with various degrees of consent or prior expressed will on the part
of the occupant?" I will discuss some political and legal scenarios. One
possible outcome might be that the re-animated cryonaut would be a legally
and phenomenologically different person than the person who was frozen.
Ralph Merkle, PhD
Title: Nanomedicine and Cryostasis
Human beings are made from molecules, and how those molecules are
arranged makes the difference between good health and bad, between youth
and old age, and between life and death. Most medical problems involve
damage at the molecular and cellular level. Today's medical tools are very
limited in their ability to deal with such damage. In the future, with
nanotechnology, we should be able to arrange and rearrange molecular
structures in most of the ways permitted by physical law. The medical
applications of such an ability will be remarkable. We should be able to heal
and cure under conditions that today would be considered completely
hopeless. We should even be able to reverse freezing injury, giving us the
ability to restore to health people who have been frozen using today's
methods.
Richard Morales, MD
Title: Setting Your Internal Clock
Circadian rhythms are well known scientific phenomenon. Recently, we
have learned how to reset our internal clocks with diet, exercise, sleep and
hormonal manipulation. Dr. Morales will discuss some of the breakthroughs
in this area and their application to anti-aging medicine.
Richard Morales, MD
Title: Fear of Death Intereferes with Rational Processes
In this brief presentation we will try to lay the foundation for
understanding how the 'fear of death' arises and how it interferes
with an individuals rational process, especially in relation to
acting to preserve, extend and possibly, via cryonic suspension,
return to, life. We will draw on the work of Stanislaw Groff MD and
my own personal experience from 30 years of working with depressed
and anxious patients in a private practice of psychiatry. Due to the
brevity of the session, audience participation will be held during
the lunch break. We will also review current research on the effects
of stress on early brain development.
Tomas A. Prolla, PhD
Title: Gene Expression Profile of the Aging Process
The gene expression profile of the aging process was analyzed in skeletal
muscle of mice. Use of high-density oligonucleotide arrays representing 6347
genes revealed that aging resulted in a differential gene expression pattern
indicative of a marked stress response and lower expression of metabolic and
biosynthetic genes. Most alterations were either completely or partially
prevented by caloric restriction, the only intervention known to retard aging
in mammals. Transcriptional patterns of calorie-restricted animals suggest
that caloric restriction retards the aging process by causing a metabolic
shift toward increased protein turnover and decreased macromolecular damage.
Gene expression profiling of the aging process provides a new tool to test
aging interventions.
Robert Newport, MD (details pending)
Gregory Stock, PhD
Title: Who's afraid of freezer burn?
Long before biological reconstruction of a frozen body (or brain) could be
feasible, technology would have to advance sufficiently for uploading to
occur. Moreover, the technological developments needed even for
uploading are sufficiently powerful to dramatically transform the world in a
way that would make biology a far less interesting substrate for life than
silicon and its progeny. The incentives for a biological rather than a
technological awakening from a cryonic state are unlikely ever to exist, so
cryonists -- if they are someday revived -- are almost certainly bidding
adieu to corporeal existence.
Natasha Vita-More
(An after dinner presentation by Natasha Vita-More on her current book
project followed by a panel discussion. )
_A Talent for Living: Cracking the Myths of Mortality._ Many have written
about
the technologies of extending life but not why we would want to live longer.
There is an art to living - how we maintain our well being and how we bring
aesthetics into our lives. We can approach life merely as a series of events
or as a creative and challenging exploration. The panel will examine the
cultural myths preventing mainstream acceptance of extreme life extension
and discuss how to crack them.
Michael West, PhD
Title: Human Therapeutic Cloning
Many technologies have been developed and refined in the past few years
that set the stage for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless
source of cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine. These
technologies include the identification and isolation of pluripotent stem
cells that are capable of generating all of the cell types in the body,
genetic and
cell engineering techniques enabling the designee of custom
tissues and organs, and advanced in somatic cell nuclear transfer to clone
ungulates confluence of these technologies will lead to means for developing
tissue therapies that will overcome the present difficulties related to
immune compatibility and graft rejection, and thus the requirements for use
of
immunosuppressive drugs and/or mmunomodulatory protocols.
Brian Wowk, PhD
Title: Molecular Control of Ice Formation
Antifreeze proteins and ice nucleating proteins found in nature are able to
respectively prevent or catalyze the formation of ice while present in very
small quantities. It has recently been demonstrated that synthetic molecules
are able to perform similar functions. The availability of inexpensive
synthetic molecules for blocking ice formation opens new frontiers for
control of ice in industry and agriculture, and for eliminating ice in
cryopreservation applications.
Asilomar Conference Center
Monterey Peninsula, Northern California
Staying on-site at Asilomar is a memorable experience. Once you arrive,
there is no driving and no hurry. Three excellent cafeteria-style meals are
included each day. Maid service, beach and swimming pool. Everything is
close and convenient. Prices dictated by accommodations selected. Non-
conference guest reservations accepted. Attendees who want to bring their
families find it to be a wonderful vacation for non-attendees. Attendees and
their families can come early or stay late to enjoy the general Monterey
Peninsula and take advantage of Asilomar's economical food and lodging
package. But reservations must be made well in advance.
Don't be disappointed by trying to make reservations at the last minute only
to learn that they no longer have accommodations that will fit your needs -
or worse, that they are sold out completely. Save money, as well, by
registering for the Conference in advance. Take advantage of the Super
Registration Information:
>Early Bird Special! Register on-line today.
>
>Lodging and meals package at Asilomar is available at www.alcor.org,
>or an information package can be requested by calling
>Alcor Life Extension Foundation at 480-905-1906.
>
>Register Early and Save!
>
>10% Discount off any fee below for EXTROPY Members
>
>Super Early Bird Special $200/person if registered
>before January 1, 1999
>
>Early Bird Special $250/person if registered
>before March 1, 2000
>General Registration $300/person if registered
>before June 1, 2000
>
>At The Door (after June 10, 2000) $400/person
>
>Register Early and Save!
>
>Call for registration package:
>Take advantage of the Early Bird Special and save
>50% off the price for registering at the door. See details below.
>
>Alcor Life Extension Foundation,
>FAX: 480-922-9027
>VOICE: 480-905-1906
>
>www.alcor.org (Register On-line)
>
>Linda Chamberlain (linda@alcor.org)
>Executive Director / Membership Administrator
>
>For information about a thriving,
>life affirming cryotransport organization:
>
>Alcor Life Extension Foundation
>Non-profit cryotransport services since 1972.
>7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916
>Membership Information: (877) GO-ALCOR (462-5267)
>Phone (480) 905-1906 FAX (480) 922-9027
>info@alcor.org for general requests
>
>
>
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