“A step towards living forever ” Chinese scientists succeed in bringing a frozen brain back to life

Chinese scientists have made major progress in the field of brain freezing, a technology that could one day help humans live much longer than their natural lives.

A new technique allowed scientists to freeze human brain tissue so that it regains its normal function after thawing, which may open the door to improved methods for studying neurological conditions.

The team succeeded in thawing brain tissue that had been cryogenically frozen, without harming it, paving the way for preserving our brains forever.

The experiment used human embryonic stem cells to grow brain samples for three weeks, long enough for neurons to become functional. These samples were then soaked in different chemical mixtures, such as sugar, antifreeze, and chemical solvents.

After freezing the samples in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours, scientists at Fudan University in Shanghai thawed the samples over the course of two weeks, and found that one mixture kept the neurons intact and able to send signals as usual.

Since 80% of our brain cells are made up of water, when we freeze them, ice crystals sometimes form.

These can distort and destroy all our cells, especially sensitive brain cells, rendering them functionally useless when thawed.

So Professor Shaw and his team set out to search for a different substance to bathe brain tissue that would keep it cool – and stop it from aging – without running into problems with crystals.

As the samples thawed, scientists watched to see which samples were recovered with the least amount of damage.

After some experiments, the team led by Professor Zhicheng Shao, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist who works at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, created a mixture that they called MEDY, an abbreviation for its four components: methyl cellulose and ethylene glycol. and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), Y27632, which allows them to freeze tissue without any damage.

This represents an important new step in the field of cryonics, which faces the problem of how to overcome the formation of water crystals in brain tissue during the freezing process.

Not only is this a major breakthrough for neuroscientists looking to study new drugs, but the team hopes that one day cryonics can live up to the expectations of science fiction movies and enable living humans to be frozen indefinitely, meaning they can be resuscitated. After many years.

In the distant future, Professor Shaw wrote that MEDY has the ability to freeze the entire brain. But this comes with its own set of challenges, because going from a frozen organ to a whole organ, such as the human brain, in experiments is complicated for a number of reasons.