The wood frog mechanism is very different from the proposal of cryonics proper, which is vitrification (not freezing, at least under ideal conditions) and subsequent repair or uploading. Cryonics involves much lower temperatures than a wood frog could possibly survive at under natural conditions. Unsurprisingly, Ken Storey is a major cryonics skeptic.
On the other hand, the use of ice-blocking polymers in vitrification is analogous to antifreeze proteins used in biology. This reduces the concentration of penetrating cryoprotectants needed to achieve vitrification at the glass transition temperature, which in turn reduces toxicity.
My thought as to how gene therapy could be useful is that if you could have ice-blocking proteins or cryoprotectant sugars present inside of the cells to begin with, lower concentrations still could be used, implying less time at high temperature where toxicity can occur. Removal of cryoprotectants during thawing is a major problem which this would also help with.
Optimistically, this would lead to a revivable brain and/or cryogenic banking of other individual organs. I think whole body will be a lot harder than brain only, perhaps dramatically so. It may be better to work on robotic and biological life support technologies to permit the brain to survive on its own if we want to see a person or mammal actually making the trip both ways within our lifetimes.
The wood frog mechanism is very different from the proposal of cryonics proper, which is vitrification (not freezing, at least under ideal conditions) and subsequent repair or uploading. Cryonics involves much lower temperatures than a wood frog could possibly survive at under natural conditions. Unsurprisingly, Ken Storey is a major cryonics skeptic.
On the other hand, the use of ice-blocking polymers in vitrification is analogous to antifreeze proteins used in biology. This reduces the concentration of penetrating cryoprotectants needed to achieve vitrification at the glass transition temperature, which in turn reduces toxicity.
My thought as to how gene therapy could be useful is that if you could have ice-blocking proteins or cryoprotectant sugars present inside of the cells to begin with, lower concentrations still could be used, implying less time at high temperature where toxicity can occur. Removal of cryoprotectants during thawing is a major problem which this would also help with.
Optimistically, this would lead to a revivable brain and/or cryogenic banking of other individual organs. I think whole body will be a lot harder than brain only, perhaps dramatically so. It may be better to work on robotic and biological life support technologies to permit the brain to survive on its own if we want to see a person or mammal actually making the trip both ways within our lifetimes.