“I’m not saying cryopreservation is a safe bet,” says Kendziorra to the audience at a private members’ club in a five-star hotel. “I’m only saying it’s a safer bet than cremation.”
Elsewhere, there are presentations about a drug called rapamycin, which has been shown to extend the lifespans of male mice, plus leggings with built-in beads that promise to drain your lymph nodes, and faecal transplants, where stool is transferred from a healthy donor into a patient’s gut via a pill or enema, in order to restore a balanced community of “good” bacteria.
Some of these technologies, including faecal transplants, are backed by promising, thorough scientific research. The same cannot be said for beaded leggings.
Tomorrow Bio told The Observer that up to 900 people, 70 of whom are in the UK, have signed up to its monthly subscription service, which funds the infrastructure and research necessary for cryopreservation. In the event of their deaths, those people will pay an additional lump sum to freeze their bodies or brains.