X-Message-Number: 7623
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 00:39:43 -0600
Subject: Reply to Zigi Visser

 (Zigi Visser) writes on CryoNet:
 
>With regards to claims made by Kent et al on amounts of $50,000
>spent on research per month, not using the "Visser cryoprotectant"
>compounds under patent in view of new research, etc:-
>
>Cryopreservation Technologies has the following public announcement
>to make:
>
>We have for the past two years, over 1000 pure compounds and
>and additional 7015 combination of compounds under patent application
>as cryopreservation agents/solutions.
>This is as a direct result of the original "Visser method" 
>cryopreservation techniques.
>
>Any attempt of patent hi-jacking as a result of "unauthorized" 
>information and subsequent "conditioning" which we have seen, 
>will be opposed and contested in court.
 
        Patent highjacking?  Conditioning?  I believe past posts
have made clear that the primary interest of 21st Century Medicine
is cryopreservation of the central nervous system by VITRIFICATION
(supercooling without ice formation), the principles of which were
articulated by Greg Fahy almost 20 years ago.  Furthermore, Bob
Ettinger has made it clear on CryoNet that the Visser Method is NOT
vitrification!
 
        To summarize, past posts make clear that:
 
        1) The target organ toward which 21CM is directing most
           of its efforts is the brain (an organ which you have
           stated you have no interest in cryopreserving).
 
        2) 21CM is interested primarily in vitrification, not
           freezing.
 
        3) 21CM has no interest in peralkylamides (whether they
           are the "Visser agent" or not), having already examined
           this class of compounds when Doug Skrecky suggested 
           DMF for cryopatients on CryoNet in 1995.
 
Thus there appears to be no overlap at all between your research and 
21CM research.
 
        Now, if you are indeed patenting 1000 compounds for 
cryopreservation use (which comprises nearly the entire known
inventory of organic molecules that readily penetrate the cell
membrane!), then it is likely there will be overlap between these
agents and agents that 21CM is interested in.  In fact, its
also likely you will overlap some of the 150 cryoprotectants 
already known to cryobiology.  However as your patents presumably  
refer to the use of these cryoprotectants under the specific
protocol known as the "Visser method", others will not
infringe on your patent unless they too use the "Visser Method."
 
        Re speculations on agents used in the Visser Method:
Perhaps you have heard the saying, "Nature abhors a vacuum."
If you claim a major scientific breakthrough to the world
news media without any scientific details, and then withhold 
disclosure of scientific details for years, it's reasonable
to expect that during that time interested parties will assemble 
all available information (including rumors), do their best
to infer scientific details, and possibly be successful.  
There is nothing unethical about this.  
 
 
>Confusing the unsuspecting with the AIDS/Cryo sedation is an eye 
>blinder, and is intended with ulterior motives and is taken as such.
 
        Many people feel that your media disclosures of multiple
organs successfully cryopreserved, and sci.cryonics claims that
full suspended animation can now be achieved in as little as
two years are an "eye blinder".  As to "ulterior motives", certainly
it is becoming difficult to deal with these claims dispassionately.
This past summer, Steve Harris and I expressed (understandable) 
scepticism about claims that entire rats had been recovered from liquid 
nitrogen.  Olga Visser then responded with the most vicious personal 
attack on me I have encountered in ten years on the Net.  The  
style and tone of the attack was completely outside the bounds of
normal human relations (let alone science), and was excessive even
by cryonics standards.  Similar personal attacks on others have followed.
 
        Now maybe against all odds you do have a useful new 
treatment for AIDS, and maybe you have important new ideas in 
cryobiology.  However breaking all the normal disciplines of 
disclosure that other scientists adhere to daily is not a good 
way to convince others.  And slapping people across the face when
they express ligitimate questions or concerns does not help.  
 
        There is no conspiracy here to supress important work, steal
work, or eliminate research competition.  There is merely a combination 
of acute scepticism and negative feelings (among some people) for the 
reasons I have stated above.  The best way to recover from this 
unfortunate state of affairs is for everyone to cease making insults 
and threats, and instead engage in a dialogue of the scientific issues
involved.  If you are not ready to engage in such a dialogue, then
you should not make extraordinary claims until you are.

***************************************************************************
Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
President           Human Cryopreservation Services   
   http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/

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