Science & Technology

DARPA is working on a way to put humans into 'suspended animation'

By T.K. Randall
August 31, 2024 ·  0 comments

Suspended animation is a common science fiction trope. Image Credit: CBS / PD-PRE1978 In science fiction, it is not uncommon to hear of technologies capable of putting a person into suspended animation so that they do not age during long-haul space missions.

In the real world, we have yet to come up with a way to achieve this, but that hasn't stopped DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) from having a good go.

Together with researchers from Harvard University, the agency is looking to find a way to pause the clock, in particular for patients suffering from time-critical injuries or illnesses.

If they could be placed into suspended animation (or hypersleep), it would give doctors more time to treat them, or enable injured soldiers in the battlefield to survive until help arrives."Cooling a patient's body down to slow its metabolic processes has long been used in medical settings to reduce injuries and long-term problems from severe conditions, but it can only currently be done in a well-resourced hospital," said study co-author Michael Super.

"Achieving a similar state of 'biostasis' with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year."

The new research aims to use the Alzheimer's drug donepezil (DNP) to induce this effect on demand outside of a hospital setting, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

"Interestingly, clinical overdoses of DNP in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease have been associated with drowsiness and a reduced heart rate - symptoms that are torpor-like," said study lead author Maria Plaza Oliver.

"However, this is the first study, to our knowledge, that focuses on leveraging those effects as the main clinical response and not as side effects."

Source: The Debrief | Comments (0)

Tags: Suspended Animation