X-Message-Number: 12043
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 1999 19:31:42 -0400
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Re: Just The Facts

On sci.cryonics, Ettinger wrote:
(and, I on cryonet also I expect, although I don't know since I only
resubscribed so that I could post this message.)

> Please see our Research page for detailed reports by
> independent experts on procedures used on sheep heads, corresponding to CI
> patient procedures, and the results. The main researcher was professional
> cryobiologist Yuri Pichugin, who is held in sufficiently high esteem by 21CM
> that he was imported from the Ukraine to work with them in their current
> research.

I ignored this when Mr. Ettinger described it this way before, but as
the person who 'put-together' the project on which Yuri Pichugin is
working (and who best understands all the connections), I cannot allow
such a distortion to go unchallenged.

Yuri Pichugin is doing the operational work (he is the experimentalist)
for the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation Project. The HSCP is a joint
project of The Institute for Neural Cryobiology (INC) and Institute for
Reseach and Education associated with Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
(HUREI)  The co-principal investigators for that project are Dr Robert
Morin, Head of Pathology at Harbor-UCLA and Greg Fahy, PhD, Head of the
Cryobiology Division of 21CM. Greg's time for this work is supplied to
INC by 21CM as part of a contract whereby 21CM has exclusive rights to
market and use any results of the HCSP research, at the same time
sharing any profits with INC (which INC in turn shares with HUREI).
 
Yuri Pichugin is a temporary employee of HUREI working directly for Dr.
Morin and is not related in any way
to 21CM or to work which is being done at 21CM. The last that I heard he
had not yet visited 21CM even though he has been only 60 miles away for
almost 6 months (there is no implication of any fault here, simply that
no two-sided connection or interest in a connection between Yuri and
21CM currently exists). Furthermore, I had no backing whatsoever from
21CM while trying to get him to work on the HSCP with respect to his
potential employment by 21CM after the end of the project if nothing
else carried on directly from it.

It is my understanding that several people at 21CM still question the
credibility of some of the work which Yuri did for CI while in the
Ukraine, and I personally am undecided. We brought him over, because we
could find no one else, because of his dedication and desire, and in
order to 'give him a chance' and 'see for ourselves'. 

Frankly, the HSCP has had a slow and rocky beginning (not entirely or
even mostly due to any fault of Yuri) and he is still 'on trial' to a
certain extent and will remain so for some time, I expect. It is my hope
(but certainly not expectation yet) that if he works out well and
obtains solid and important experimental results, he may yet find a home
at 21CM, because I would hate to see anyone sent back to the Ukraine.

Thus, to say the he "is held in sufficiently high esteem by 21CM" shows
once again that Mr. Ettinger has little understanding of the true
situation of anything related to 21CM. This is partly because, as
Charles Platt has pointed out several times, he has never been to 21CM
or to their presentations, preferring instead to believe the distortions
of reality which come from the many biases in his mind.

-- Paul --

  Voice/Fax: 416-968-6291  ICQ: 25490505
The Institute for Neural Cryobiology - http://neurocryo.org
Perfected cryopreservation of Central Nervous System tissue
for neuroscience research and medical repair of brain diseases

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