Dear Members and Friends,
January kept Alcor busy – the good kind of busy, where you blink and suddenly it’s February. Things are moving quickly at Alcor, and there’s a lot to catch you up on. This edition is meatier than usual, so get comfortable because we’ve got ground to cover.
The first public board meeting of the year was on January 6th. There was a good turnout, with over 50 people joining us virtually, including some prominent individuals from the cryobiology world. James gave a high level overview on the organization’s direction, Nick presented on the research side (more on this later in the newsletter), and there was a solid Q&A session. Here are the highlights:
Fundraising & Endowment: 2025 closed out as one of the stronger fundraising years in Alcor’s history, including a major gift from the Rothblatt family – one of the largest individual donations Alcor has ever received. About 75% of donations came from people who hadn’t given at that level before. The goal is to build an operational endowment similar to what exists for the Patient Care Trust, which is very healthy. The operations and administrative side, however, has historically struggled to keep pace. A comparable endowment would allow Alcor to focus on growth rather than making ends meet. Expect a significant fundraising initiative announcement in the near future.
European Expansion: Also discussed was progress on Alcor’s expansion into Europe, including the introduction of Dr. Trond Hegle, who will be helping lead that effort. Dr. Hegle is talented, well-connected, and speaks an impressive number of languages including German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, and English.
The Third Way™ Program: Additionally, there was an update on Alcor’s continued development of partnerships with funeral homes through The Third Way program, positioning cryonics as a legitimate third option for final disposition alongside burial and cremation. Several promising conversations are in progress with potential partners.
💬 Alcor Community Exchange – February 3rd, 2026
First Tuesday of February, 4:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. This is a member Q&A session with James – a chance to ask questions, hear updates, and connect with the community.
Click here to join at time of event
[Editor’s note: Visiting the Alcor engineering lab is a bit like visiting the Willy Wonka chocolate factory of cryonics. You’ll see things there you won’t find anywhere else in the world – cue the Gene Wilder singing.]
Jacob, Mohammed, and Steve just finished building a second whole body field washout system along with several associated tubing packs. These are now in inventory and ready for deployment.
No off-the-shelf solution could do what was needed, so Mohammed and Jacob built one. They designed and built a complete data-acquisition system for the field washout from the ground up – circuit design, component selection, assembly, and a 3D-printed enclosure. It logs temperatures, pressures, and fluid flow rates throughout perfusion procedures, saving everything to an SD card for later analysis.
The electronics team is upgrading the liquid level monitoring system in the Patient Care Bay, including a new fill sensing system to more reliably control dewar refilling.
The production version of the new “Compact Neuro” perfusion system is almost complete. It combines everything the team has learned about perfusion circuits, cryoprotectant ramp generation, and temperature/pressure control into the most advanced neuro perfusion system available. It also allows CT scans of the patient during the procedure – a major capability upgrade.
The project to increase bulk liquid nitrogen storage from 900 gallons to 13,000 gallons has cleared its final permitting hurdle. Construction begins in February. The massive storage tank has already been delivered from the manufacturer and is staged in Phoenix, ready for installation once the onsite infrastructure is complete.
The team keeps finding new uses for the UV resin 3D printers. Recently they designed a heat exchanger unit that could replace the expensive commercial heat exchangers used in neuro perfusion cases. Testing and validation are underway.
If you’ve been following the newsletters, you know the CT scanner installation has been… an adventure. Between bureaucratic hurdles, transformer voltage issues, trench re-digging, and utility company scheduling, it’s been a saga worthy of its own miniseries. But the team finally got over the hump.
The team performed Alcor’s first-ever in-house whole body CT scan. The scan itself went smoothly: they used the new ceiling trolley and hoist to transfer the patient from the perfusion table directly onto a radiotranslucent scanning tray, completed the scan in just a few minutes, transferred the patient back, and proceeded directly to cooldown. That patient is now in long-term storage.
After everything it took to get here, it was well worth the wait. Being able to validate cryoprotectant distribution in-house and in real time opens up a lot of doors for quality assessment and research.
Nick and Wonjin are putting the CT scanner to good use and have already started producing valuable data. Pre- and post-cooling scans show clear differences between frozen kidneys and vitrified kidneys.
The next step: quantifying exactly how much ice forms in different regions using a newly purchased differential scanning calorimeter. This will let the team precisely correlate CT images with ice content – a tool that could become standard for assessing cryopreservation quality in organs and patients alike. A generous donor is matching contributions to help cover the cost of this equipment – directed donations will be matched 1:1 up to $25,000. If you’d like to support Alcor’s research, now’s a good time.
The team continues refining porcine kidney cryopreservation protocols. About 40% of kidneys show excellent vitrification with minimal ice formation. The other 60% show small ice crystals in the inner medulla – the part of the kidney that’s hardest to perfuse.
The key metric correlating with success? Ultrafiltrate concentration – essentially, how much cryoprotectant is coming out in the kidney’s “urine” during perfusion. If it’s high enough, the kidney vitrifies well.
To improve the inconsistent results, the team is now testing:
Wonjin and Nick are developing long-term brain slice cultures that can survive 2-3 weeks in a CO2 incubator. Using assays to measure metabolic activity, they’ve established a baseline comparing fresh tissue versus straight-frozen tissue.
The goal: cryopreserve brain slices, rewarm them, and show maintained viability and functionality over time. This would be a significant contribution to the literature – evidence that brain tissue can remain alive and functional after proper cryopreservation.
Additional human brain tissue experiments are also in the works, with a neurosurgery partnership nearly finalized.
A particularly exciting update is that Nick is developing a project to integrate antifreeze protein genes directly into cells via gene therapy. The idea is that if cells can produce their own antifreeze proteins internally, they might survive freezing and thawing better without needing external cryoprotectants.
This is early-stage – they’re still screening candidate proteins from fish, beetles, and other organisms. Potential applications include improving CAR-T cell therapy, which could be relevant for both cryonics and mainstream medicine.
[Editor’s note: This is genuinely cutting-edge stuff. Having world-class researchers on staff who can pursue projects like this is a big deal – and exactly the kind of work Alcor should be doing.]
Health Check-In Service
Reminder that the health check-in service is available to all members. If you’re going in for a procedure – even something minor with light anesthesia – you can notify the DART team through the member portal. Shelby and the team will keep tabs on your situation and be ready if anything changes. It’s one of those “better to have and not need” things.
New Team Member: Joe Sarnowski
Joe Sarnowski has joined the DART team as Case Logistics Coordinator. He’s an RN and certified ECMO nurse with years of critical care experience – exactly the kind of background you want coordinating cryonics cases. He’s working with Shelby on the logistical planning that goes into each deployment – coordinating equipment, personnel, travel, and timing. As caseloads continue to grow, having dedicated logistics support makes a real difference in response quality.
Alcor Emergency Number
Speaking of being prepared: the Alcor emergency number should be saved in your phone and shared with your friends and family – make sure they know to call it.
Ideally, you should also be wearing your emergency bracelet or necklace in case you’re incapacitated. You are wearing yours at all times, right? RIGHT?? 👀
[Editor’s note: Okay, I know the current bracelets aren’t exactly winning any fashion awards, but the team is actively planning a refresh and the new ones will be much better. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and just wear it.]
You should also add Alcor’s emergency numbers to your phone’s Medical ID (iPhone) or Emergency Information (Android) – this allows first responders to access critical contact information even when your phone is locked. Add both numbers to be safe.
Alcor Emergency Line:
Calling from the US: +1 800 367-2228
Calling Internationally: +1 480 922 9013
The membership team has been grinding away on some important behind-the-scenes work. Application processing is moving faster now and the bottleneck is clearing. The membership audit is still in progress, which is about as exciting as it sounds, but necessary. And the team is nearly done digitizing decades of paper records, a task that they deserve a small medal for.
On the tax front: annual donation letters have gone out for 2025 membership dues and donations. If you donated through Every.org or Pledge.to, those services send their own tax letters – keep an eye on your inbox. As always, consult your tax advisor for your specific situation.
There’s early planning underway for a refresh and modernization of the Alcor headquarters workspace.
[Editor’s note: Alcor has been around for a long time, and the facilities have come a long way in terms of cutting-edge research and medical capabilities. Buuuut, let’s just say the office aesthetic is a bit… retro. We’re working on bringing the look and feel up to speed with the technological innovation happening inside.]
One notable addition being considered is a celebration of life space in honor of Alcor’s patients and members. This would be a dedicated area to recognize the individuals who have entrusted their future to Alcor – a meaningful way to honor their lives and keep their memory present within the facility. More details as things develop.
Before joining Alcor, Amya spent four years as a preschool teacher and graduated in May 2024 with a bachelor’s in philosophy. Her day-to-day role involves assisting the CEO and supporting membership coordination alongside Diane and Cam.
When asked about her first impression of Alcor, Amya’s response was basically: “THE COOLEST JOB EVER – I HAVE TO BE A PART OF IT.” The surprising part about working here, she notes, is how normal it becomes that there are cryopreserved patients in the back in the dewars. She enjoys the surprise on people’s faces when she tells them where she works.
Outside of work, Amya loves to sing, dance, and make art. She enjoys being out in nature and exploring subjects like space and neuroscience.
Amya brings great energy and vibes to the office, she’s ambitious, and she’s got solid camera presence. This came in handy when she and Garrett put together the end-of-year holiday video for the team, which you may have seen in our previous newsletter.
New Feature: Pay for Others
The portal now includes a feature that lets you pay membership dues for family members you’ve previously linked to your account – handy if you’re managing memberships for kids, parents, or a spouse. To access it: go to your member portal, navigate to the Payments tab, then the Invoices page, and click the Account button in the top right corner. If you’d like to use this feature and don’t see it, reach out to [email protected] and they’ll get it set up.
App Coming Soon
A member portal app for iPhone and Android is in development – and we think members are really going to like it. Streamlined access to the member portal from your phone, no clunky mobile browser experience. Stay tuned for the release announcement.
Portal Adoption
More than two-thirds of Alcor members have made the switch to the new portal. Our goal for 2026 is to have 100% of members onboarded. If you haven’t made the switch yet, it’s easy and worth your time.
💀 Frozen Dead Guy Days – March 27-29, 2026
Alcor is offering members an exclusive Frozen Dead Guy Days Weekend Experience in Estes Park, Colorado. This is more than attending a festival – it’s a curated, behind-the-scenes experience with Alcor staff and fellow members during one of the most unique events connected to cryonics culture.
What’s included for participating members:
This package is designed to combine education, community, and access. Members will have the opportunity to connect directly with Alcor staff, explore cryonics history in person, and enjoy the festival atmosphere without the usual friction of planning everything separately.
Availability is limited, and lodging in Estes Park fills quickly. If you’re interested in participating, reach out to [email protected].
🧬 Global Cryonics Summit – May 16-17, 2026
GCS 2024 in Miami was the largest industry-wide cryonics gathering ever. It’s happening again, this time in Berkeley, California as part of Vitalist Bay. (Note: the event will soon be rebranding to “Biostasis Summit,” but it’s the same conference.)
Alcor will have a strong presence – CEO James Arrowood and Director of Research Dr. Nick Llewellyn will both be presenting, and Alcor members can expect to see familiar faces and connect with staff throughout the event.
What to expect:
Join the mailing list on our website to get updates first.
No pressure… but perhaps it’s time to stop cryocrastinating and finally become a member. It’s a new year, and time comes at you fast – there’s no better time than the present. Learn more at alcor.org.
Feel free to check out last month’s newsletter if you missed it, and as always you can send your feedback to [email protected] or [email protected].
