Aurelia Song

I published aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation in cryobiology and won the small and large mammal prizes from the BPF as a result.

With this work, we had an existence proof.

Preserving entire brains long-term in nanoscale detail was absolutely achievable, at least under laboratory conditions.

Real-world preservation A method capable of preserving the nanostructure of the brain under realistic conditions.

Specifically, could we extend the laboratory method to work under the legal requirements and practical limitations that constrain real-world human cases?

Adapting the technique to messy real-world conditions, 2018 to 2025, took significantly more development, resulted in a bunch of insights about what is feasible and infeasible for human preservation, and shaped our entire approach to preservation going forward.

In one memorable instance, once we finally had a technique that worked to our standard of rigor on pigs, we once again put it to the test in a marathon live demonstration.

Andrew Critch, co-founder of the Survival and Flourishing Fund, personally witnessed the preservation of a rat under conditions that mimicked human preservation.

The resulting brain samples were imaged in consultation with a microscopy lab at UC Berkeley and Professor Kasturi at UChicago.

As a result of our demo, Andrew recommended us for an investment, which we've since received.

The real-world technique has been submitted as a pre-print, ultra-structural preservation of a whole large mammal brain with a protocol compatible with human physician-assisted death.

The rest of the post is dedicated to unpacking these results.

Five quick notes as we begin.

There's a list of bullet points here.

By popular demand, this post is specifically about nanostructural preservation quality, achieving a level of detailed preservation throughout the entire brain and body such that synapses are traceable to their originating neurons and subsynaptic details are retained as well as traditional fixation methods used in neuroscience research.

I'll postpone the argument that whole-body nanoscale preservation is sufficient for future revival, as it deserves its own post.

A draft version of this post has been reviewed by Ken Hayworth, president of the Brain Preservation Foundation, and he signed off on it as an accurate description of the Brain Preservation Foundation, its history, Ken's personal motivation, and the results of the BPF's two preservation prizes.

I've not substantially modified it since.

A draft version of this post has been reviewed by Andrew Critch, co-founder of the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and he signed off on it as an accurate description of his visit to Nectum to evaluate their preservation technology and the later results.

Again, it's not been substantially modified since.