Sparks Brain Preservation

I have been having a lot of discussions with people about the potential for biological revival via molecular nanotechnology in recent weeks. One topic that has come up over and over again is that some people expect that specimens preserved with fixatives will be much more difficult to "repair&q...

My current view is that storage via chemical fixation alone is likely to be adequate if it is either formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde, but the addition of glutaraldehyde will likely be helpful because it is an even stronger covalent crosslinker, to help stabilize the tissue.

Hello and thank you for your interest! Yes that is all correct. The only minor clarification is that because we just started this membership program, for anyone who signs up in 2026, they will automatically be counted as a long-term member. After that, it will require two calendar years of continuou...

My talk at the SBP Open House from December is now online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4XkGOlGXbM

To host our talks and other videos going forward, we created a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SparksBrainPreservation

Thank you for your interest and question. :D Here are my thoughts on that protocol: 1. Based on the evidence I have seen to date, cannulating the internal carotid and vertebral arteries is a more efficient way of preserving the whole human brain. I believe it allows the procedure to start faster and...

We plan to convert our standard protocol to -20xC storage in the freezer room fairly soon, we expect within a year or two. I wanted to give a public update on this because many people have asked us about it. Although I personally expect that fridge storage alone in formaldehyde/glutaraldehyde is lik...

The information is definitely not encoded in the nucleus, that's true. So your claim is that all dendritic spines retract and synapses are lost within 5 minutes of complete global cerebral ischemia? This seems pretty inconsistent with the available evidence. See, for example, the section of our revi...

I don't think it's a significant loss from a research perspective. We already have a lot of brain tissue available to us. Our bottleneck is our ability to characterize it.

Also, I think most people don't want biopsy samples of their brains taken.

Interesting! It would be helpful if you could link to the chat or ask chatgpt what the main sources it is basing these claims on. Some of the articles in this space visualize redistribution of fluorescent proteins and call it “spine loss.” And then the spines “come back” at mostly the same locations...

We reviewed this literature in our paper from 2023: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10294569/#S7.4 One relevant quote: “It is challenging to reconcile differences in the decomposition rate of dendrites observed across these studies. However, problems with dendrite visualization in studies f...

Correct, we will not take biopsies from patients.

(With the exception of the people who already signed up for the research program, which is no longer available for new sign ups.)

Back in 2019 I wrote a review on the molecular effects of glutaraldehyde: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/8zd4e_v1 Glutaraldehyde is the main chemical that has been proposed for use in biostasis prior to biological revival via molecular nanotechnology. For example, it what was specifically recommended ...

I found an interesting article on formalin that I thought readers of this forum might be interested in: "Reframing Formalin: A Molecular Opportunity Enabling Historical Epigenomics and Retrospective Gene Expression Studies". Link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11887604/ One of t...

This event was previously discussed here: https://forum.oregoncryo.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2603. This post is a reminder with a couple of more details. On Saturday December 13, 2025 from 12 to 4 PM, there will be an open house meetup at the Sparks Brain Preservation facility (3265 Marietta St SE...

Interesting discussion. I just wanted to respond to a couple of the points. > To be clearer, I had assumed that long-term memory would be completely available from the connectome of the chemically fixed brain, but I was disappointed to realize that this assumption was too optimistic: the molecular s...

Thanks for your suggestions and perspective. I will offer my personal thoughts on the topic: 1. Regarding preserving fibroblasts, I don't really see what the benefit is. DNA is also preserved by fixatives, it's just difficult to access the DNA for sequencing with current technology. There are some c...

Nikki Olson and Aschwin de Wolf are starting the Biostasis Pacific Northwest group. I thought that some of our members might be interested in this. If so, you can subscribe and follow one or more of these links to stay up to date: Newsletter / email list: https://biostasispnw.substack.com/ Facebook:...

After operating the free research program for 1.5 years, we've learned that it is not the best option for us or prospective members. As a result, we are now sunsetting the research program for new sign ups. The people who have already signed up will be grandfathered in. In other words, we continue t...

On Saturday December 13, 2025 from 12 to 4 pm, there will be a meetup at the Sparks Brain Preservation facility (3265 Marietta St SE, Salem). Aschwin de Wolf will be there. We will have a tour and then we will have discussions about our organization and the field in general (and possibly a couple of...

If there were six lines available, this is what I would currently recommend:

[Name]/Brain Donor
If Dead or Injured, Call:
Sparks Brain Preservatn
503-585-2781 Asap!
No Death Investigation
No Autopsy

Here is a quote from a New Yorker Magazine article on longevity: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/11/how-to-live-forever-and-get-rich-doing-it At seventy-seven, Ray Kurzweil takes eighty supplements a day, has an artificial pancreas to manage his diabetes, and appears to be in great shape....

As part of our effort to improve our services and strengthen our membership program, we are planning on increasing the prices for remote preservation procedures by our staff in the near future. This change is due to both the improvements we have made and the realities of what high-quality preservati...

I am hereby submitting my candidacy for the Advisory Board of Directors. Here is some information about me. I have been interested in brain preservation since college. I originally signed up for preservation with the Cryonics Institute in 2009, and later switched to Alcor. I then switched to Oregon ...

I just signed up. Looking forward to seeing people on there! One note: When I first went to the login url (sparks-brain.circle.so), I needed to click -> "Not a member? Sign up". Then I needed to add my email address. When I first clicked the button to try to log in with a Google account, i...

Our research program is currently open to individuals in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. From our Services Page : "This is the same brain preservation procedure, with the goal of future revival if this ever becomes feasible and humane. The difference is that we will also remove two...

Good thoughts. This one is made of medical-grade stainless steel. It just slides over an existing wrist band. A lot of people have fitness bands, smart watches, etc, and this would be compatible with those. It looks to me like it would be fairly noticeable by EMTs, I think probably moreso than a nec...

Actually, that same enrollee just told me that the text on the 13 mm version is too small to read. The 19 mm is much better. He also wrote: "I also recommend the 19mm watch band version by far over the first one I sent you. Much more visible to EMTs, and I see it every time I check the time. Re...

One of our enrollees had some very useful feedback that the StickyJ IDs were not very effective and failed. Instead, they recommended Road ID. For example this one: https://www.roadid.com/products/elite-stainless-classic-id-bracelet?variant=40296608104538 Here is the text they put on it: [Name]/Brai...

As we have improved our capabilities over the past year, I wanted to provide an update on our standby options and current pricing estimates (which are determined on a case-by-case basis). We offer standby services for individuals who are known to be gravely ill and are expected to experience legal d...

Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, Emil Kendziorra, and I recently ran a survey of neuroscientists, asking them what they thought of the structural basis of memory, and how that extended to the possibility of brain preservation. I thought readers of this forum might be interested. Here is the preprint: http...