Zombies? Scientists in the USA and India were granted Ethical permission to reanimate dead brains using stem cells by the Institutional Review Board. Starting this year, Bioquark plans to begin Project Reanima, with the end goal of discovering if individuals can at least be partly brought back from the dead.
While a lack of evidence suggests that this is even genuinely possible or realistic, the Bioquark team consists of highly recognized neurological researchers such as Dr. Calixto Machado, who has written extensively on brain death and is a member of American Academy of Neurology. The team will conduct a multitude of therapies on the 20 participants, who have been medically certified as being brain dead and are only kept from decomposing by life support machines.
Bioquark Inc. Receives IRB Approval for First-In-Human Brain Death Study – https://t.co/NrO3Fqsfn9 pic.twitter.com/sE4yojqYEc
— IraSamuel Pastor (@IraSamuelPastor) April 20, 2016
After each therapy has been conducted, the researchers will monitor the brain activity of the participants for several months, hoping to look for signs of neurological reactivation. Their focus will be on the upper spinal cord, which is the lowermost part of the brain stream that controls a person’s cardiorespiratory functions – breathing and a beating heart, primarily.
“To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness,” said Ira Pastor, the CEO of Bioquark Inc., as reported by the Telegraph. “We hope to see results within the first two to three months.”
The trial will begin at Anupam Hospital in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand in India, where the patients will be continuously given cocktails of peptides, chemicals that can act as neurotransmitters, along with biweekly injections of stem cells.
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“It is a long-term vision of ours that a full recovery in such patients is a possibility, although that is not the focus of this first study,” Pastor added. “But it is a bridge to that eventuality.”
Although the task may seem a bit like a story from a science fiction novel – the devil is always trying to mimic the work of God, and through the use of technology, the researchers will in-part act on his behalf and attempt to mimic the miracles of God.
This is a follow-up report of the announcement, regarding the beginnings of the of the trial from last year – see here for more.