Alcor Board Appointees
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Martine Rothblatt, PhD have accepted the Board’s nomination to join to the Scientific Advisory Board.
Welcome Robert and Martine!
Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 7, 2008, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 AM (PDT). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
Board Report
Research and Development
Our preparation of the new whole-body vitrification system continues, and we are nearing the end of that project. A punch list has been created for the automation, and we anticipate this portion to be completed soon. We have been modifying an old operating room table to support the patient enclosure, a task that became necessary when we expanded the plenum in hopes of improving nitrogen distribution for the cooling plate.
Dewar Maintenance Update
Bigfoot-10’s pump down continues, and it is at 10 microns (210 degrees C) after 1800 hours on the pump. We are estimating a June conclusion to this effort as steps are being taken to firmly deal with the dewar contractors to resolve the situation regarding the purchase of dewars in the future.
Financial Statements
Tanya Jones will contact the accountants to see if the massive amounts of data already assembled for the financial reviews of 2006 and 2007 will be sufficient to start the audit.
Administrative Statistics
Membership: On April 30, 2008, Alcor had 859 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. Ten memberships were approved during the month of April, no memberships were reinstated, one membership was cancelled and one member was cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net gain of eight members this month.
Applicants: At the end of this month Alcor had 67 applicants for membership. 11 new applicants were added, 10 applicants were converted to members and 2 applicants were cancelled resulting in a net loss of 1 applicant for this month.
Information Packages: 316 info packs were requested this month, 15 were handed out during facility tours or from special request. The average total of 246 info packs sent per month in 2008 as compared to 129 in 2007.
Media- Main Newsletter for Carnegie Mellon
Alcor gave permission for The Tartan to use its photos for an article.
Please note:
They declined our offer to do fact-checking before publishing the article.
Two Recent Cryopreservations
In the past ten weeks, we’ve deployed six standby operations and have performed three stabilizations and cryopreservations (including A-2340 discussed in a previous entry).
Of the two most recent cases one patient required two standbys and the other three in advance of cardiac arrest. They were performed on opposite coasts, with the first patient coming from California and the second from Florida. Both patients were successfully stabilized, transported, cryoprotected and cooled.
Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2008, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 AM (PDT).
Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
Methuselah Foundation Rents Alcor Lab Space
We are pleased to have developed a cooperative agreement with Methuselah Foundation to rent them use of some of our laboratory equipment and space.
Their initial work in Alcor’s lab will be an extension of protein work done at Arizona State University.
In addition to generating some additional income from the arrangement, Alcor stands to gain recognition in any papers published as the result of their work.
Clinical Progress
Progress continues on the whole-body system. An outside contractor cut the custom chiller panel for heat exchange controls; and Hugh Hixon completed the wiring necessary for that part of the system. Programming continues.
Our equipment fabricator is currently building the new version of our liquid ventilation system, with all the modifications that came out of the previous round of testing done quite some time ago.
Different pumps are required for this version, and the heat exchange coils were fabricated locally for improved cooling.
Dewar Maintenance
In order to pump down two Bigfoot dewars simultaneously, we purchased a second vacuum pump and the other necessary components. Since we tend to order dewars by the pair, doing this will save us about three months getting the dewars ready for patients after a new purchase.
Recently, while testing the boil-off rate of liquid nitrogen from Bigfoot-1, we took the opportunity to gather more data on the temperature differential between the bottom and top of the dewar, should nitrogen supplies be discontinued. (The dewars boil off between ½ and ¾ inches per day, on average.) There was a 5 degree difference between the boiling point of liquid nitrogen and the top of the pod. At the same time, there was a temperature difference of 40 degrees between the top of the pod and the bottom of the dewar’s lid.
Engineer Hugh Hixon estimates that when the last drop of liquid nitrogen evaporated, the temperature at the top of the pod would be no warmer than -180 degrees C. These excellent results are largely because of the conductive nature of the pods themselves, which are made of aluminum.
If we were to lose access to liquid nitrogen, it would take more than 90 days to boil off all the nitrogen. The more efficient dewars would go significantly longer.
New CA Readiness Team Coordinator
Due to Regina Pancake’s move to Arizona to work at Alcor, a new person, Michael Geisen, has been selected for the role of Southern California Regional Coordinator.
Michael was a long-time participant in the regional transport team, but he took some time off to found a company. He has already begun organizing training sessions for local team members, and he participated in the stabilization of A-2340.
Welcome back, Michael.