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Dear Members and Friends,
It’s been a minute since our last newsletter, but we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes. Leading up to their unveiling at September’s Annual Strategic Meeting, the team has been laser focused on producing some serious updates to our member services. The wait was worth it…
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After months of development and countless rounds of feedback from members, staff, and volunteers, the redesigned Alcor website is finally here. This has been a long time coming. As Alcor has evolved and grown, we needed a website that could better serve both longtime members and curious newcomers while showcasing the breadth of capabilities we’ve developed.
The new approach focuses on meeting people where they are, whether they’re encountering cryonics for the first time or ready to sign up. The site emphasizes Alcor’s medical legitimacy right from the homepage. Clear, digestible content introduces cryonics properly without making assumptions about prior knowledge.
Key features include:
For members aching for more technical depth – we plan to layer in more detailed content and deep dives over time, giving us the best of both worlds: accessibility for newcomers and comprehensive resources for those who want them.
This represents a significant step forward in Alcor’s digital presence. First impressions matter, and we now have a website that better represents the quality of work happening behind the scenes.
If you spot issues or have general feedback, you can email us at [email protected].
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This might be the most significant member services update in years. The new member portal delivers functionality that’s been requested for over a decade. If you signed up on the old system, you’ll need to create a new account – but trust us, it’s worth the five minutes.
These are just some of the base portal features – many more will be rolled out over time as we continue to enhance functionality. If you spot issues or have feedback on the portal, email us at [email protected].
For Prospective Members:
The portal represents years of member requests finally coming to fruition. The functionality and transparency it provides puts Alcor’s member services in a completely different league.
If you’ve been considering membership, there has never been an easier time to sign up. The new portal streamlines the entire process, making signup significantly faster and more straightforward.
Create a Member Portal Account
YouTube Tutorial
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Alcor’s Medical Response Director, Shelby Calkins, focused her Annual Strategic Meeting presentation on one theme: Mission Ready. DART has spent the year building infrastructure, expanding coverage, and preparing for sustained growth in caseload.
The numbers justify the preparation. After caseloads jumped in 2023 and 2024, DART needed to scale fast.
This simplified operational map above provides a high-level view of our coverage areas, though it doesn’t fully reflect just how comprehensive our network has become.
Some highlights from 2025:
It’s worth emphasizing: the level of capability Alcor has built on this front is a serious organizational strength, with plans to keep growing and expanding. Alcor is the only cryonics organization with a fully in-house deployment and recovery team operating at this scale. The investment in DART infrastructure, training, and geographic coverage represents a competitive advantage that directly translates to better member outcomes.
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Nick and Wonjin spent the better part of the last six months building out comprehensive lab capabilities. The equipment acquisition alone represents multiple year’s worth of standard lab buildout compressed into under a year: fluorescence microscope, -80°C freezer, autoclave, CO2 incubator, tissue slicer, blood gas analyzer, and more.
Brain tissue research has expanded significantly with the fluorescence microscope enabling visualization of individual cells, measurement of cell viability, and counting of synaptic density. The team is developing long-term brain slice cultures that can survive two to three weeks, allowing study of post-cryopreservation functionality over time – something understudied in current literature.
Of particular note, our newest CT scanner, now fully operational, allows real-time validation of cryoprotectant distribution and enables us to pre- and post-scan all patients.
Recent whole brain cryopreservation experiments show good M22 distribution and vitrification through CT scanning validation. Pre and post-cooling scans demonstrate density increases consistent with vitrification rather than ice formation.
The lab is now collaborating with Arizona State University’s core facilities and other major universities, providing access to equipment and expertise that would be impossible to maintain in-house while increasing research credibility toward the goal of peer-reviewed publication.
Support Research:
Do you want to accelerate this work? We’re raising funds for a much-needed Calorimeter with a $25,000 matching donation available. This equipment will enable critical measurements for optimizing cryopreservation protocols.
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Mohammed Rushnaiwala has joined Jacob and Steve on the engineering team, bringing expertise in both mechanical engineering, programming, and electronics design. Amongst their many projects, they have been particularly focused on using rapid manufacturing to compress development timelines dramatically.
Their multiple medical-grade 3D printers produce FDA-approved biocompatible components in under 24 hours. They now regularly produce custom surgical equipment that would cost a fortune off-the-shelf or take weeks to fabricate manually. The printers have already paid for themselves in cost savings and time efficiency.
Field Whole Body Washout
The portable washout system to be deployed in the field this year represents the foundation for upcoming field cryoprotection capabilities. It provides operating-room quality perfusion control and data acquisition anywhere. Patent applications are in progress for various design innovations.
Intermediate Temperature Storage Research
To stay ahead of the curve, Alcor has been actively supporting research and development of vapor phase storage, and Alcor was recently granted a patent for technologies related to our vapor exchange transport systems. Alcor engineering continues development and construction of its quarter-scale prototype in conjunction with Brook Norton. Heat flow simulations showing excellent temperature uniformity.
The goal is full-scale whole body intermediate temperature storage in vapor phase. This member-donation-funded project will enable research on optimal thermal treatment for cryopreserved patients.
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The past year brought significant team expansion across every department, and reflects a deliberate strategy: building redundancy to create organizational stability. Single points of failure don’t scale when managing 1,500+ members and increasing caseloads. Recent team additions include:
Nikki Olson, who architected the new member portal and has turbo charged our software development. Mohammed Rushnaiwala who added his mechanical engineering, electronics, and software capabilities to the team. Garrett Lambrecht and Amya Anderson joined as executive assistants, with Amya also coordinating member services alongside new membership coordinator Cameryn Hoole. Daniel Lescavage strengthened accounting operations while Daniel Walters (yours truly) overhauled community outreach and communications. The research team grew with Nick Llewellyn directing R&D and Wonjin Cho focusing on neurobiological research. The DART Team even expanded as well, adding team members across multiple regions.
Looking back at where we were a few years ago, the contrast is striking. Redundancy in key positions means no single person is the sole point of knowledge or capability, and that’s essential for an organization expecting to be around for a long time to come. While Alcor isn’t the flashiest organization, we now have far more redundancy in critical service areas than any other cryonics organization in the field.
We’ll continue doubling down on being the most mature and stable cryonics service provider available.
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As we approach the end of 2025, we want to emphasize how important member donations are to Alcor’s continued progress. The website, member portal, research equipment, DART expansion, engineering innovations, and staff editions you’ve read about in this newsletter, are only made possible by direct member contributions from members like yourself.
We have made it easier than ever to donate, and we accept a multitude of online donation methods, including both Crypto and Stock.
If you’re considering an end-of-year donation, know that every donation directly makes a tangible difference in Alcors increased capabilities.
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These past couple of years have been instrumental in creating the infrastructure and foundation for future growth. As an organization, Alcor is in the strongest position we’ve ever been in – financially stable, operationally mature, and motivated by a team that’s genuinely excited about the work. The momentum built over this period positions us to tackle increasingly ambitious goals in 2026 and the years to come. To follow along with our progress check out our new public meeting schedule for the year to come. *Note the next upcoming board meeting is this Tuesday November 4th at 4:00pm MST.
Click Here to Join Virtually at Time of Event
Record-Breaking Embryo Birth: A baby was born from an embryo that was preserved for over 30 years, setting a new record and sparking discussion on the limits of long-term biological preservation. Read more
Putin & Xi Discuss Organ Transplants and Immortality: A recent BBC report covers how the two leaders are exploring advances in organ transplantation and longevity science — and how “immortality” is becoming a subject of serious geopolitical interest. Read more
Human Head Transplants Update: Researchers review where the science and ethics of head transplantation currently stand, examining why the concept continues to attract both fascination and controversy. Read more
The Intellectual Generosity of Ralph Merkle: A thoughtful reflection on the lasting influence of Ralph Merkle — Alcor Board Member, cryonics advocate, and pioneer in both cryptography and molecular nanotechnology. Read more
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