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Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists have preserved and recovered cryogenically-frozen brains in near-perfect condition.

Robert McIntyre and Gregory Fahy from 21st Century medicine were able to prevent neuron shrinkage that follows dehydration.

The pair used ultrafast chemical fixation and a new cryogenic storage technique called aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation (ASC) to preserve and thaw rabbit and pig brains.

The Brain Preservation Foundation announced the team had won the Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize for the work first published last August in the paper Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation (pdf) [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2015.09.003].

"To demonstrate the feasibility of ASC, we perfuse-fixed rabbit and pig brains with a glutaraldehyde-based fixative, then slowly perfused increasing concentrations of ethylene glycol over several hours in a manner similar to techniques used for whole organ cryopreservation," the pair say in the paper.

Original Submission