One of the great things about having a blog of your own is that if you want to write an article called "Frozen Rabbit Kidneys," you just do it, and no one can stop you. Of course, it's even more exciting when there's an actual development in the field of frozen rabbit kidneys justifying publishing such an article.
So now Rand Simberg reports that a scientist named Greg Fahy...
...is going to announce the ability to restore animal kidneys to full function after freezing them to deep subzero temperatures. I visited Greg in his lab over a decade ago when he was doing organ preservation research for the Red Cross in Rockville, Maryland, and he was doing some breakthrough work with rabbit kidneys then. According to the report, tests with human organs may commence within two years.
Frankly, I'm a little surprised that Fahy is working with rabbit kidneys rather than mouse kidneys.
This is an enormous development. And not just for rabbitkind. If a frozen kidney can be thawed out and returned to normal function, it should be possible to do it with other tissues as well. By extension, we should eventually be able to thaw out and revive an entire frozen organism. Fahy's accomplishment, which is actually geared towards storing and transporting organs intended for transplant, will represent a huge step forward and a partial proof-of-concept for the field of cryonics.
Posted by Phil at September 17, 2003 10:04 AM | TrackBack