Ben Best
Encyclopedia
Ben Best is President and CEO of the Cryonics Institute
, the world's second largest cryonics
organization. Best is a well-known activist in cryonics
and life extension
advocacy. He holds undergraduate degrees in pharmacy
from the University of British Columbia
, and physics and computing science (BSc), and finance (BBA) from Simon Fraser University
in British Columbia
, Canada
.
of Canadian Cryonics News (total circulation of about 60 copies) until the last issue was published in Spring of 2000. He is still a Director
of CSC. Best also served as treasurer of the Toronto
chapter of Mensa
.
Along with many other cryonicists, in the mid-1990s Best left Alcor Life Extension Foundation
to join CryoCare Foundation which had been formed by a small group of dissatisfied Alcor activists in late 1993. In March 1995, he became Secretary of CryoCare and in 1999 became Cryocare's President for a short time in an effort to prevent the termination of the organization. When CryoCare terminated in the year 2000, mainly as a result of the discontinuation of service in 1999 by its cryopreservation
provider (Biopreservation
), he helped negotiate the transfer of CryoCare's two cryonics patients from its long-term patient care provider, CryoSpan, to Alcor
.
In 2001 at the request of the current President
and CEO, Paul Wakfer, Best became President and CEO of The Institute For Neural Cryobiology (INC). Ben thus helped to ensure the completion of the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation Project (HSCP), which had begun in 1998, as a direct result of the The Prometheus Project begun by Wakfer in 1996. HSCP, which was being funded jointly by INC and Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute
. was a project focused on vitrification of rat
brain
hippocampal
slices which involved cooling to −130 degrees Celsius, rewarming and testing for viability
. Discoveries from this research
have been incorporated into the vitrification formulations of Twenty-First Century Medicine
. Dr. Yuri Pichugin was brought to the US from the Ukraine by Wakfer and Dr. Robert J. Morin, Research Professor of Pathology at REI and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Harbor-UCLA, to conduct the research for this project at Harbor-UCLA under the direction of Morin as Principal Investigator
and Dr. Gregory M. Fahy
, Chief Scientific Officer of Twenty-First Century Medicine
, as Consulting Investigator. The results of the HSPC were published in the April 2006 issue of the journal Cryobiology.
In September 2003, Best became President/CEO of the Cryonics Institute
(CI),
replacing Robert Ettinger
who had been President since co-founding CI in 1976.
In 2007 Best gave a presentation "Evidence that Cryonics may Work" at the third SENS conference, held at the University of Cambridge
in England
. That talk became the basis for a paper published in Rejuvenation Research
in 2008 under the title "Scientific Justification for Cryonics Practice".
The most popular Cryonics FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions
) currently on the web
was authored by Best, and endorsed by Tim Freeman as a replacement for his own cryonics FAQ which was well-known during the 1990s. Best is also known for creating and maintaining personal web pages with extensive scientific and technical information about cryonics.
. He regularly attends biogerontological conferences
and has debated with Aubrey de Grey
in the Community Bulletin Board
of SAGE KE
. His monograph
Mechanisms of Aging was reprinted in the Anti-Aging Clinical Protocols 2004-2005 of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
. Best's review "Nuclear DNA damage as a direct cause of aging" challenges the OncoSENS claim that nuclear DNA damage only matters for aging because of cancer.
Cryonics Institute
The Cryonics Institute is a member-owned-and-operated not-for-profit corporation which provides cryonics services. It is located in Clinton Township, Michigan....
, the world's second largest cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
organization. Best is a well-known activist in cryonics
Cryonics
Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
and life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
advocacy. He holds undergraduate degrees in pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
from the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, and physics and computing science (BSc), and finance (BBA) from Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Cryonics activities
For most of the 1990s, Best was President of the Cryonics Society of Canada (CSC) and was EditorEditing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of Canadian Cryonics News (total circulation of about 60 copies) until the last issue was published in Spring of 2000. He is still a Director
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of CSC. Best also served as treasurer of the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
chapter of Mensa
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...
.
Along with many other cryonicists, in the mid-1990s Best left Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
to join CryoCare Foundation which had been formed by a small group of dissatisfied Alcor activists in late 1993. In March 1995, he became Secretary of CryoCare and in 1999 became Cryocare's President for a short time in an effort to prevent the termination of the organization. When CryoCare terminated in the year 2000, mainly as a result of the discontinuation of service in 1999 by its cryopreservation
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
provider (Biopreservation
Biopreservation
Biopreservation is the use of natural or controlled microbiota or antimicrobials as a way of preserving food and extending its shelf life. Beneficial bacteria or the fermentation products produced by these bacteria are used in biopreservation to control spoilage and render pathogens inactive in food...
), he helped negotiate the transfer of CryoCare's two cryonics patients from its long-term patient care provider, CryoSpan, to Alcor
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
.
In 2001 at the request of the current President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and CEO, Paul Wakfer, Best became President and CEO of The Institute For Neural Cryobiology (INC). Ben thus helped to ensure the completion of the Hippocampal Slice Cryopreservation Project (HSCP), which had begun in 1998, as a direct result of the The Prometheus Project begun by Wakfer in 1996. HSCP, which was being funded jointly by INC and Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Harbor–UCLA Medical Center is a 570-bed public teaching hospital located at 1000 West Carson Street within the unincorporated Los Angeles County area of West Carson, California...
. was a project focused on vitrification of rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
hippocampal
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in...
slices which involved cooling to −130 degrees Celsius, rewarming and testing for viability
Viability
Viable or viability is the ability of a thing to maintain itself or recover its potentialities.Viable or viability may also refer to:...
. Discoveries from this research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
have been incorporated into the vitrification formulations of Twenty-First Century Medicine
Twenty-First Century Medicine
21st Century Medicine is a California cryobiological research company which has as its primary focus the development of perfusates and protocols for viable long-term cryopreservation of human organs, tissues and cells at cryogenic temperatures through the use of vitrification. Dr. Gregory M...
. Dr. Yuri Pichugin was brought to the US from the Ukraine by Wakfer and Dr. Robert J. Morin, Research Professor of Pathology at REI and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Harbor-UCLA, to conduct the research for this project at Harbor-UCLA under the direction of Morin as Principal Investigator
Principal investigator
A principal investigator is the lead scientist or engineer for a particular well-defined science project, such as a laboratory study or clinical trial....
and Dr. Gregory M. Fahy
Greg Fahy
Gregory M. Fahy is a cryobiologist and biogerontologist, and is also Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Twenty-First Century Medicine, Inc. Fahy is the world's foremost expert in organ cryopreservation by vitrification...
, Chief Scientific Officer of Twenty-First Century Medicine
Twenty-First Century Medicine
21st Century Medicine is a California cryobiological research company which has as its primary focus the development of perfusates and protocols for viable long-term cryopreservation of human organs, tissues and cells at cryogenic temperatures through the use of vitrification. Dr. Gregory M...
, as Consulting Investigator. The results of the HSPC were published in the April 2006 issue of the journal Cryobiology.
In September 2003, Best became President/CEO of the Cryonics Institute
Cryonics Institute
The Cryonics Institute is a member-owned-and-operated not-for-profit corporation which provides cryonics services. It is located in Clinton Township, Michigan....
(CI),
replacing Robert Ettinger
Robert Ettinger
Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was an American academic, known as "the father of cryonics" because of the impact of his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality...
who had been President since co-founding CI in 1976.
In 2007 Best gave a presentation "Evidence that Cryonics may Work" at the third SENS conference, held at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. That talk became the basis for a paper published in Rejuvenation Research
Rejuvenation Research
Rejuvenation Research is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed bimonthly scientific journal published by Mary Ann Liebert that investigates rejuvenation therapies.The editor-in-chief is Aubrey de Grey...
in 2008 under the title "Scientific Justification for Cryonics Practice".
The most popular Cryonics FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
) currently on the web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
was authored by Best, and endorsed by Tim Freeman as a replacement for his own cryonics FAQ which was well-known during the 1990s. Best is also known for creating and maintaining personal web pages with extensive scientific and technical information about cryonics.
Life extension activities
Best is active in the field of biogerontologyGerontology
Gerontology is the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging...
. He regularly attends biogerontological conferences
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
and has debated with Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging and co-author...
in the Community Bulletin Board
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
of SAGE KE
SAGE KE
The Science of Aging Knowledge Environment was an online scientific resource provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science .-History and Organization:...
. His monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
Mechanisms of Aging was reprinted in the Anti-Aging Clinical Protocols 2004-2005 of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine is a United States registered 501 nonprofit organization that promotes the field of anti-aging medicine and trains and certifies physicians in this specialty. As of 2011, approximately 26,000 practitioners had been given certificates...
. Best's review "Nuclear DNA damage as a direct cause of aging" challenges the OncoSENS claim that nuclear DNA damage only matters for aging because of cancer.
Writings
Best has published articles on his website on more than 150 diverse topics ranging from science and medicine to history and philosophical musings. Articles include:- Causes of Death http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html
- Brain Neurotransmitters http://www.benbest.com/science/anatmind/anatmd10.html
- Mechanisms of Aging http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/aging.html
- Cancer Death - Causes and Prevention http://www.benbest.com/health/cancer.html
- The History of Christmas http://www.benbest.com/history/xmas.html