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<b><br /></b><ul><li><strong>By using 3D-printed skeleton scientists have made fingers.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The skeleton is controlled with electrodes which simulate the tissue attached.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>Scientists have also developed a new way to attach living tissue to bionic devices.</strong></li></ul>The past few decades have seen tremendous growth and advancements in science and robotics, diminishing the line between humans and machines. We have come a long way from remote-controlled primitive machines. And Artificial Intelligence (AI) is leading the way. <br /><br />And in the latest in the new list of discoveries, researchers from the <keyword id="211741" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="University-of-Tokyo">University of Tokyo</keyword> Institute of Industrial Science published their <a href="http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/3/18/eaat4440/tab-figures-data">study</a> in the Science Robotics on Wednesday, claiming to have created a <keyword id="6582011" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="bio-hybrid-robot">bio-hybrid robot</keyword>. <br /><br />A Biohybrid <keyword id="20756" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Robot">robot</keyword> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetic">cybernetic</a> organism, basically a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot">robot</a> controlled by a computer consisting of both electronic and biological elements. The device, that remained functional for a week was an amalgamation of living tissue and synthetic robotics.<br /><br />
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<br />For the fabrication of the device scientists first printed the skeleton of the robot out of 3D resins. Living muscle tissues were then incorporated into the device using anchors to hold it in place.<br /><br />Next, the researchers used perforated hydrogel sheets incorporated with myoblast — a type of stem cell — to construct the living muscle. The sheets were then attached to the skeleton with the use of anchors. Some extra structures were also introduced to promote tissue growth. The stem cells which were used eventually matured into muscle cells. The device then used electrode simulations to control tissues for the movements of the device.<br /><br />“Once we had built the muscles, we successfully used them as antagonistic pairs in the robot, with one contracting and the other expanding, just like in the body,” the author of the study Shoji Takeuchi said <a href="https://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/news/2916/">in a news release</a>. <br /><br />“The fact that they were exerting opposing forces on each other stopped them shrinking and deteriorating, like in previous studies,” he added. <br /><br />While robotics in general has advanced in leaps and bounds, the bio-hybrid humanoid is the next step into the future. <br /><br />These bio-hybrid robots can be also be used as cybernetic implants that would serve as prosthetic limbs or other parts of the human body. Such technology could be used for drug tests just like the organ on a chip technology, which is currently under development.<br /><br />
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<br /><br />Who knows what the future holds for this technology, but it seems that “the future of medicine lies in the hands of biohybrid robotics”.<br /><br /><em>Image Source: </em><em><a href="http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/3/18/eaat4440/tab-figures-data">ScienceRobotics</a></em><br />

Researchers are one step closer to creating real cybernetic transplants

<p class="source"><span>OOOM Agency</span></p><p class="caption">Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, right, says he will complete the world's first full-body transplant this year.</p>During a recent Skype call with Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, he waved a tattered grey book in front of the camera.<p>Canavero said the book contained one of the keys to the outlandish procedure he claims to be on track to complete this year: the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">world's first full-body transplant</a>. </p><p>The book was "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley's classic 1818 novel about a distraught scientist who discovers how to give life to inanimate matter.</p><p>Canavero sees his planned procedure in a similar light.  </p><p>"I want to create a near death experience, actually a full death experience, and see what comes next," he told Business Insider.</p><p>This will happen, he said, when he successfully severs the spinal cords of two humans - a Chinese national and a brain-dead organ donor - and attaches the head of the former onto the body of the latter. He calls the procedure <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3821155/">HEAVEN</a>, short for head anastomosis venture. ("Head transplant," he said, is a mis-translation of his description of the procedure.)</p><p>"My first order of business is to see HEAVEN through. My goal is life extension," Canavero said.</p><p>This procedure could be used to cure spinal cord injuries, and although Canavero acknowledged that's a noble aim, he said he views it as a goal scientists should pursue so as not to "waste" his scientific efforts. But ultimately, Canavero believes humans will one day use full-body transplants to live forever by placing aging heads onto healthier bodies.</p><p>One day, we might even use clone bodies, he said.</p><h2>Fusion</h2><p>Canavero says that a series of his own recently published experiments are paving the way for him to move ahead with the first full-body transplant in a person.</p><p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics</span></p>In the first of these experiments, he claimed to have severed and then reconnected <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-surgeon-head-transplant-dog-experiment-2016-9">the spinal cord of a dog</a>. Less than a year later, he published a paper detailing how he created a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-rat-experiment-2017-4">series of two-headed rodents</a>. In June 2017, Canavero said he severed the spinal cords of a group of mice and then <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-rat-spinal-cord-experiment-2017-6">reattached them using a special solution</a> he calls "glue."<p>Canavero says these experiments are proof that he and his research team have solved what's often considered the holy grail of spinal cord research: fusion.</p><p>"We have so much data that confirms this in mice, rats, and soon you will see the dogs," said Canavero. "This is the message. We have a cure for spinal cord paralysis."</p><p>Other experts don't buy Canavero's claims, citing a lack of evidence.</p><p>"I simply don't think the reports of joining spinal cords together are credible," <a href="https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/james-fitzgerald">James FitzGerald</a>, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider.</p><p><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/divisions/neurosurgery/research/rob-brownstone">Robert Brownstone</a>, a professor of neurosurgery and the Brain Research Trust Chair of Neurosurgery at the University College London, agreed.</p><p>"Many great scientific ideas are born out of crazy ideas that turned out to be right so we can't completely turn a blind eye to this, but there has to be some mechanistic aspect to it, which I'm not seeing," Brownstone said.</p><p>Others, including University of Cambridge neurosurgery professor <a href="http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?prof.jdp">John Pickard</a>, say the journal in which the studies were published is also a red flag. "I just don't think he's done the science," Pickard said.</p><h2>'Breaching the wall between life and death'</h2><p>The second word in the name for Canavero's procedure, anastomosis, is a combination of the Greek words "ana," meaning to place upon, and "stoma," meaning mouth. Together, the words essentially mean "a connection or opening between two things."</p><p class="source"><span>Netflix/The Discovery</span></p>Canavero did not necessarily mean for the words to be taken literally about the head and body - instead, he sees the procedure as a way to connect the realms of the living and the dead.<p>"I'm into life extension. Life extension and breaching the wall between life and death," he said. "My goal is not curing spinal cord injury. It is not curing medical conditions because there are not enough bodies. Even if you cure someone who's in bad shape, what about everyone else? Then you have to think about clones."</p><p>James FitzGerald also spends a significant amount of time thinking about how to cheat death, but he believes Canavero is taking the wrong approach. Instead, he says, the best route is technology like brain-computer interfaces that enable people with paralysis to power robotic limbs with their mind.</p><p>"This is all stuff we're going to be seeing in the next decade," said FitzGerald. "Full-body transplants, on the other hand, are nowhere in sight."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

An outlandish surgeon is aiming to transplant human heads as a way to beat mortality

<p class="source"><span>OOOM Agency</span></p><p class="caption">Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, right, says he will complete the world's first full-body transplant this year.</p>To Sergio Canavero, "Frankenstein" is scientific inspiration.<p>The Italian neurosurgeon told Business Insider that Mary Shelley's classic novel convinced him that he could complete the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">world's first full-body transplant.</a> Canavero claims he'll complete the procedure on a human next fall in China.</p><p>Not only did the book reveal a missing piece in his plan to swap the heads of two humans, Canavero said, it also provided the justification for the dangerous procedure.</p><p>Just as the fictional Doctor Victor Frankenstein discovered how to give life to inanimate matter, Canavero aims to cheat death. The surgeon envisions a future in which healthy people could opt for full-body transplants as a way to liv longer, eventually even putting their heads on clone bodies.</p><p>"I'm into life extension," he told Business Insider on a recent Skype call. "Life extension and breaching the wall between life and death."</p><p>In fact, Canavero said that in doing the procedure he wants to "create a near death experience - actually a full death experience - and see what comes next."</p><h2>HEAVEN</h2><p class="source"><span>Netflix/The Discovery</span></p>As Canavero explained it, the full-body transplant will involve going into the spinal cord of someone with a spinal injury and cutting out the injured segments of the cord. The donor's cord would be cut to perfectly replace the missing portion in the injured person, and then the two healthy stumps would be fused together. Canavero plans to attach the cords using polyethylene glycol (PEG), a common laboratory tool used to encourage cells to fuse. Canavero simply refers to it as "glue."<p>He said he will soon complete this transplant procedure with two humans - a Chinese national who remains anonymous and a brain-dead organ donor. The head of the former will be attached to the body of the latter.</p><p>The full procedure is called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3821155/">HEAVEN</a>, short for head anastomosis venture.</p><p>Canavero said that he'd been studying the concept of this full-body transplant for more than a decade before he picked up Shelley's book. After reading it, he said he realized his planned procedure lacked a critical component: electricity.</p><p>The surgeon has not elaborated on the role electricity will play in the operation, however <a href="https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/james-fitzgerald">James FitzGerald</a>, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider that PEG is can be paired with "large pulses of electricity" to coax fibers into merging. Still, FitzGerald maintains that Canavero's plans to use it to fuse two spinal cords are unrealistic.</p><p>"It's just too much of a jump," FitzGerald said.</p><p>Canavero doesn't think so.</p><p>"Electricity has the power to speed up regrowth," he said. "Bing bang bong you have the solution" to spinal cord fusion.</p><p>Canavero isn't pursuing this unprecedented medical feat to <span>cure people with life-threatening injuries, despite the fact that spinal cord injuries affect <a href="https://www.nscisc.uab.edu/PublicDocuments/fact_figures_docs/Facts%202012%20Feb%20Final.pdf">12,000 Americans every year</a>. Instead, he </span>wants the operation to serve as a way to explore his own ideas about life, death, and human consciousness (though he says "it would be a waste" not to help injured patients as well).</p><p>"I'm not religious but I don't believe consciousness can be created in the brain. The brain is a filter," he said, adding that the word anastomosis combines the Greek roots "ana," meaning to place upon, and "stoma," or mouth.</p><p>"Like a kiss," he said.</p><h2>'I just don't think he's done the science'</h2><p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics</span></p><p>Canavero's evidence that the procedure will work rests on a handful of animal experiments that many experts say were nowhere near satisfactory.</p><p>In the first of these experiments, Canavero claimed to have severed then reconnected <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-surgeon-head-transplant-dog-experiment-2016-9">the spinal cord of a dog</a>. Less than a year later, he published a paper detailing how he created a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-rat-experiment-2017-4">series of two-headed rodents</a>. In June 2017, the surgeon said he severed the spinal cords of a group of mice and then <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-rat-spinal-cord-experiment-2017-6">reattached them using</a> polyethylene glycol.</p><p>Canavero says these trials are proof that he and his team figured out what's often considered the holy grail of spinal cord research: fusion.</p><p>"We have so much data that confirms this in mice, rats, and soon you will see the dogs," he said.</p><p>However, many experts don't buy his claims, citing a lack of evidence. And it's important to keep in mind that the fate of the Chinese man who will be involved in the first procedure hangs in the balance.</p><p>"I simply don't think the reports of joining spinal cords together are credible," <a href="https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/james-fitzgerald">James FitzGerald</a>, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider.</p><p><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/divisions/neurosurgery/research/rob-brownstone">Robert Brownstone</a>, a professor of neurosurgery and the Brain Research Trust Chair of Neurosurgery at the University College London, agreed.</p><p>"Many great scientific ideas are born out of crazy ideas that turned out to be right so we can't completely turn a blind eye to this, but there has to be some mechanistic aspect to it, which I'm not seeing," Brownstone said.</p><p>Others, including University of Cambridge neurosurgery professor <a href="http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?prof.jdp">John Pickard</a>, suggested the journal in which Canavero's studies were published was also a red flag.</p><p>"I just don't think he's done the science," Pickard said.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

A surgeon aiming to do the first human head transplant says 'Frankenstein' predicted a crucial part of the surgery

<p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience &amp; Therapeutics</span></p>First, he said he severed and then reconnected the spinal cord of a dog. Less than a year later, he published a paper detailing how he created a series of two-headed rodents. Now, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero claims to have severed the spinal cords of a group of mice and then reattached them using a special solution he simply calls "glue."<p>Each of these experiments, Canvero claims, are small steps toward the goal of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">completing the world's first head transplant</a>, a procedure that many experts in the field have called absurd and outlandish.</p><p>Despite numerous ethical and scientific obstacles, Canavero appears to be charging full-steam ahead with his animal experiments.</p><p>In a paper published June 14, Canavero details how he and a team of surgeons <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cns.12713/full">severed then reconnected the spinal cords of a group of mice</a> using a type of plastic called polyethylene glycol (PEG). Canavero previously described PEG <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmGm_VVklvo">in a TED Talk as "a special biological glue"</a> that could be the key to a successful future head transplant.</p><p>Canavero <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/head-transplant-sergio-canavero-repair-spinal-cord-rats-625689">told Newsweek</a> that this latest experiment is a leap forward.</p><p>"Critics said the transected spinal cord is unrecoverable and thus a human head transplant is impossible," he said. "The scans show the reconstructed cord."</p><p>Surgeons <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826?tag=bisafetynet-20">first used PEG in a series of experiments conducted in the 1930s and 1940s</a>, in which they attempted to fuse the spinal cords of dogs, giving them two heads. That's essentially what Canavero claims to have done in April, when he described the process of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-rat-experiment-2017-4">attaching the head of a mouse to the body of a rat</a>. He repeated the procedure in several other animals, creating a series of two-headed rats which lived for an average of 36 hours.</p><p>In preparation for the latest experiment on mice, Canavero performed what he called a <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/houston-gemini-has-landed-spinal-cord-fusion-achieved/">"proof-of-concept" procedure</a> on a dog. He severed the animal's spinal cord then reconnected it - one of the major obstacles to completing the procedure in people. He has not released details on how long the dog lived, however.</p><p>In the most recent study, Canavero describes severing the spinal cords of the mice then applying saline to the wound to stop the bleeding. Then, nine of the mice were treated with PEG and had their wounds sealed. Six mice were only treated with saline. Both groups were given antibiotics after the procedure for 72 hours. Canavero writes in the paper that the rodents who received PEG recovered their motor function and were able to walk after 28 days. Nevertheless, all of the rodents except one (who died earlier) only lived for a month.</p><p>Keeping the animals in his experiments alive is not Canavero's goal, however. Instead, he says that each experiment is meant to inch him closer to the successful completion of a human head transplant.</p><p>That idea has been explored by several scientists with mostly noble aims, such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valery-spiridonov-head-transplant-2015-4">saving the lives of people with deadly diseases</a> like spinal muscular atrophy. But experts say there are many reasons to be doubtful. "These papers do not support moving forward in humans," Case Western Reserve University neuroscientist Jerry Silver, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106382-head-transplant-teams-new-animal-tests-fail-to-convince-critics/">told New Scientist last year</a> about Canavero's dog paper.</p><p>Here are the five major obstacles a successful head transplant would face.</p><h2>1. Keeping the severed head alive</h2><p>In any transplant, the donor organ (the one that has been taken from a donor's body) has to be kept alive until it can be placed into the recipient's body.</p><p>As soon as an organ is removed from a body, it begins to die. So doctors cool down the organ to help reduce the amount of energy its cells need to stay alive. Using a solution of cold saltwater (saline), they <a href="http://www.transweb.org/faq/q24.shtml">can preserve</a> kidneys for 48 hours, livers for 24 hours, and hearts for about five to 10 hours.</p><p>But a head is one of the most complex parts of the body. In addition to housing your brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, it holds two gland systems: the pituitary, which controls the hormones that circulate throughout the body, and the salivary, which produces saliva.</p><p>More than a century of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gRgBAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA222&amp;lpg=PA222&amp;dq=blood+pressure+decapitation&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=6vBko8FMMK&amp;sig=hpini9SesR_wDHKYmpUmbdETU14&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=UIo6VZqhLKfmsASg5oDYCg&amp;ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&amp;q=blood%20pressure%20decapitation&amp;f=false">disturbing animal research</a> has shown that at the moment of decapitation, blood pressure in the head drops dramatically. The resulting loss of blood and oxygen pushes the brain into a coma, soon followed by death.</p><p>In his April procedure in mice, Canavero and his team claim they addressed this problem by keeping a steady blood supply flowing between the rodent who received the head, the rodent who donated it, and a third rodent.</p><p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics</span></p><h2>2. The immune system</h2><p>A big issue after any transplant procedure is the reaction from the patient's body. Typically when someone receives an organ, his or her immune system quickly detects substances called antigens on its cells - and knows they don't match the antigens found in the host's body. Sensing a foreign invader, the immune system may <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000815.htm">respond with a full-scale attack</a>, which is why virtually all transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs after their procedures. Because the head is so complex and includes so many organs, experts say the risk of rejection is much higher.</p><h2>3. Speed</h2><p>In a 1970s experiment with monkeys, neurosurgeon Robert White suggested that in order for a head transplant to be successful, it <a href="http://io9.com/5856747/a-short-film-about-the-monkey-head-transplant-experiment-of-the-1960s">had to be done in under an hour</a> to avoid irreversible damage to the animals. Canavero has<a href="http://io9.com/5856747/a-short-film-about-the-monkey-head-transplant-experiment-of-the-1960s"></a> noted that he <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/heaven-the-head-anastomosis-venture-project-outline-for-the-first-human-head-transplantation-with-spinal-linkage-gemini/">aims to maximize the efficiency of a transplant in people</a> by removing both heads at the same time and keeping both bodies under total cardiac arrest.</p><h2>4. Fusing spinal cords</h2><p>For a head to communicate with and control a new body, the spinal cord and the brain must be seamlessly connected.</p><p>To that end, Canavero's plan would involve placing the patient in a coma for up to a month to allow the spinal cords to fuse. Otherwise, the "spaghetti" (as he calls it) that makes up the spinal cord could become gnarled or twisted.</p><p>Such a long coma is a potential problem, Harry Goldsmith, professor of neurosurgery at the University of California at Davis, <a href="http://www.popsci.com/no-human-head-transplants-will-not-be-possible-2017">told Popular Science,</a> since medically-induced comas often result in infection, blood clots, and reduced brain activity.</p><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTHHT39A3Vw">TED</a></span></p><h2>5. Animal trials </h2><p>Before head transplantation is ever considered for trials in people, all of these problems have to be addressed in animal tests. And such experiments would face many hurdles in getting approved (in the US, at least) because they involve so much cruelty.</p><p>Nevertheless, Canavero and his team appear to be moving ahead in other countries where the procedures are legal. He has said that <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/head-transplant-sergio-canavero-repair-spinal-cord-rats-625689">he plans to replicate the latest mouse experiment</a> in dogs in the coming months.</p>             <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

An outlandish surgeon who aims to do the first head transplant has severed and reconnected the spinal cords of 9 mice

<p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics</span></p>Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero made <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">headlines around the world</a> two years ago with the bold claim that he would soon be stitching one person's head onto another's body.<p>Despite the numerous obstacles Canavero faces from ethical and scientific standpoints, he appears to be moving full-steam ahead. Last year, he performed what he called a <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/houston-gemini-has-landed-spinal-cord-fusion-achieved/">"proof-of-concept" procedure</a> in which he severed a dog's spinal cord then reconnected it - one of the major obstacles to completing the procedure in people.</p><p>And now Canavero has published another <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cns.12700/abstract">equally repellant study</a> that details how he and another surgeon, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/world/asia/china-body-transplant.html?_r=0">Xiaoping Ren</a>, attached the head of a mouse to the body of a rat. The team then repeated the procedure in several other animals, effectively creating a series of two-headed rats.</p><p>Most of the animals in Canavero's studies lived for only several days - the two-headed rats carried on for an average of 36 hours, and Canavero hasn't released details on the dog. But keeping them alive wasn't Canavero's goal; instead, he says each experiment is meant to stand as evidence that a complete procedure in people is on the horizon.</p><p>That far-fetched idea that has been explored by several scientists with mostly noble aims, such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valery-spiridonov-head-transplant-2015-4">saving the lives of people with deadly diseases</a> like spinal muscular atrophy. But experts say there are many reasons to be doubtful. "These papers do not support moving forward in humans," Case Western Reserve University neuroscientist Jerry Silver, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106382-head-transplant-teams-new-animal-tests-fail-to-convince-critics/">told New Scientist last year</a> about Canavero's dog paper.</p><p>Here are the five major obstacles a successful head transplant would face.</p><h2>1. Heads can't stay alive on their own.</h2><p>In any transplant, the donor organ (the one that has been taken from a donor's body) has to be kept alive until it can be placed into the recipient's body.</p><p>As soon as an organ is removed from a body, it begins to die. So doctors cool down the organ to help reduce the amount of energy its cells need to stay alive. Using a solution of cold saltwater (saline), they <a href="http://www.transweb.org/faq/q24.shtml">can preserve</a> kidneys for 48 hours, livers for 24 hours, and hearts for about five to 10 hours.</p><p>But a head isn't an isolated organ - it's one of the most complex parts of the body. In addition to housing your brain, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin, it holds two gland systems: the pituitary, which controls the hormones that circulate throughout the body, and the salivary, which produces saliva.</p><p>More than a century of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gRgBAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA222&amp;lpg=PA222&amp;dq=blood+pressure+decapitation&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=6vBko8FMMK&amp;sig=hpini9SesR_wDHKYmpUmbdETU14&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=UIo6VZqhLKfmsASg5oDYCg&amp;ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&amp;q=blood%20pressure%20decapitation&amp;f=false">disturbing animal research</a> has shown that at the moment of decapitation, blood pressure in the head drops dramatically. The resulting loss of fresh blood and oxygen pushes the brain into a coma, soon followed by death.</p><p>In the most recent mouse procedure, Canavero and his team claim they addressed this problem by keeping a steady blood supply flowing between the rodent who received the head, the rodent who donated it, and a third rodent. </p><p class="source"><span>CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics</span></p><h2>2. The immune system has to be coaxed into accepting a foreign head.</h2><p>In any transplant, one of the main issues is the reaction of a patient's own body. The immune system of the person receiving the organ detects immune-triggering substances, called antigens, on the cells of the new organ. These antigens don't match those found in their own body, which can lead the immune system to <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000815.htm">unleash a full-scale attack</a>. That's why almost all transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs after their procedures.</p><p>Because the head is so complex and includes so many organs, the risk of rejection is much higher.</p><h2>3. The surgery has to happen in under an hour.</h2><p>In a 1970s experiment that would never be allowed today, neurosurgeon Robert White <a href="http://io9.com/5856747/a-short-film-about-the-monkey-head-transplant-experiment-of-the-1960s">transplanted the head of a monkey</a> onto the body of a donor monkey. He maintained the monkey bodies by cooling them to about 59 degrees Fahrenheit for the duration of the procedure. The monkey with the transplanted head survived for eight days after the surgery, until the immune system rejected the head.</p><p>According to White's experiments and Canavero's paper, the entire transplant surgery has to be done in under an hour. Canavero <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/heaven-the-head-anastomosis-venture-project-outline-for-the-first-human-head-transplantation-with-spinal-linkage-gemini/">notes</a> that both of heads would have to be removed from their bodies at the same time. Working swiftly, the surgeons would have to reattach the head of the person they want to keep alive to the circulatory system of the donor's body while both bodies are under total cardiac arrest.</p><h2>4. Spinal cords are incredibly tricky to fuse.</h2><p>For a head to be able to communicate with and control a new body, the spinal cord and the brain must be seamlessly connected.</p><p>This didn't happen in the monkey transplant - the monkey head that was transplanted onto the donor was able to see, move its eyes, and eat, but the body was paralyzed from the neck down. It did appear to happen in the dog procedure, but experts have said they need more concrete proof of Canavero's claims.</p><p><span><span><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106382-head-transplant-teams-new-animal-tests-fail-to-convince-critics/">According to Jerry Silver</a>, </span>Canavero's team claims "they cut the cervical cord 90% but there's no evidence of that in the paper, just some crude pictures."</span></p><p><span>Canavero disagrees, of course. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmGm_VVklvo">TED Talk</a>, he described "a special biological glue" called polyethylene glycol that he says could be the key to successfully completing the procedure. Some experimental surgeons in the 1930s and 1940s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826">used this material</a>, which is a type of plastic, to fuse the spinal cords of dogs. But those experiments typically involved attaching a foreign head to the complete body of a dog (giving it two heads), rather than replacing one head with another.</span></p><p class="source"><span>TheWhy</span></p><p>Canavero's plan would also involve placing the patient in a coma for up to a month to allow the spinal cords to fuse. Otherwise, the "spaghetti" (as he calls it) that makes up the spinal cord could become gnarled or twisted.</p><p>But such a long coma is a potential problem as well, Harry Goldsmith, professor of neurosurgery at the University of California at Davis, <a href="http://www.popsci.com/no-human-head-transplants-will-not-be-possible-2017">told Popular Science</a> - medically-induced comas often result in infection, blood clots, and reduced brain activity.</p><h2>5. The procedure has to work in animal trials before being considered for humans.</h2><p>Before head transplantation is ever considered for trials in people, all of these problems have to be addressed in animal tests. And such experiments would face many hurdles in getting approved (in the US, at least) because they involve so much cruelty.</p><p>Nevertheless, Canavero and his team appear to be moving ahead in other countries where the procedures are legal.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

An outlandish surgeon who aims to perform the first head transplant just gave a rat a second head

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TheWhy</span></p><p class="caption">A clip from the video game "Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain," shows a man who shares Sergio Canavero's exact likeness.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero made <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">headlines around the world</a> last year with the bold claim that he would soon be stitching someone's head onto another person's body.</p><p>His latest, renewed claim comes after his collaborators released video footage to several news outlets including a clip shown on Tuesday on Sky News. The video appears to show a dog stumbling on all fours and able to wag its tail. Sky News claims the video was shot three weeks after an experimental surgery was done to completely sever the dog's spinal cord. </p><p>In a <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/houston-gemini-has-landed-spinal-cord-fusion-achieved/">paper published on Monday</a> in the journal Surgical Neurology International, Canavero details the technique used to treat the dog and claims that it will make a human head transplant - or more appropriately, full-body transplants - feasible next year.</p><p>But other experts are doubtful. The magazine New Scientist shared the papers with Case Western Reserve University neuroscientist Jerry Silver, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2106382-head-transplant-teams-new-animal-tests-fail-to-convince-critics/">who said</a>, "These papers do not support moving forward in humans." Importantly, the dog in the video did not have a full-body transplant, but merely had its spinal cord allegedly severed and then repaired.</p><p>Nevertheless, Canavero isn't the only surgeon with dreams of performing what have been called head transplants, or more appropriately, full-body transplants, at some point in the future. <span>Chinese orthopedic surgeon Dr. Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/world/asia/china-body-transplant.html?_r=0">told The New York Times</a> that he was building a team to perform the procedure as well.</span></p><p><span>The idea of full-body transplants has been explored by numerous scientists looking both <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valery-spiridonov-head-transplant-2015-4">save people from deadly diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy</a>, and extend life. But the challenges of such an endeavor are intense, to say the least. A handful of previous studies detailing such experiments were all short-lived - the animals in the experiments, usually mice, survived for a maximum of a few days after the procedure.</span></p><p data-para-count="202" data-total-count="6557">Here are five of the main obstacles scientists would have to overcome before doing such a transplant:</p><h2>1. Heads can't stay alive on their own</h2><p>In any transplant, the donor organ (the one that has been taken from a donor's body) has to be kept alive until it can be placed into the recipient's body.</p><p><span>As soon as an organ gets removed from a body, it begins to die.</span></p><p><span>For things like heart or kidney transplants, doctors cool the organ to keep it viable for as long as possible. Cooling the organ helps reduce the amount of energy its cells need to stay alive.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty Images/Christopher Furlong</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Doctors accomplish this by bathing the organ in a solution of cold saltwater (saline). This process <a href="http://www.transweb.org/faq/q24.shtml">preserves kidneys for 48 hours, livers for 24 hours, and hearts for about five to 10 hours</a>.</p><p><span>But a head would be a far more difficult process. </span><span>A head isn't just an isolated organ. It's the heaviest and one of the most complex parts of the body. It houses not just your brain but also your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin, as well as two separate gland systems: the pituitary, which controls the hormones that circulate throughout the body, and the salivary, which are responsible for producing saliva.</span></p><p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gRgBAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA222&amp;lpg=PA222&amp;dq=blood+pressure+decapitation&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=6vBko8FMMK&amp;sig=hpini9SesR_wDHKYmpUmbdETU14&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=UIo6VZqhLKfmsASg5oDYCg&amp;ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&amp;q=blood%20pressure%20decapitation&amp;f=false">More than a century of disturbing animal research</a> has shown that at the moment of decapitation, blood pressure in the head drops dramatically. The resulting loss of fresh blood and oxygen pushes the brain into a coma, soon followed by death.</p><p>This brings us to the next problem.</p><h2><span>2. The immune system has to be coaxed into accepting a foreign head</span></h2><p><span>As with any transplant, one of the main issues facing patients is that of their own body: <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000815.htm">If the immune system flags the foreign organ (or organs, in this case) as foreign, it can unleash a full-scale attack</a>.</span></p><p><span>The immune system of the person receiving the new organ detects immune-triggering substances, called antigens, on the cells of the new organ. These antigens don't match those found on your own organs. This is why almost all transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs after their procedure.</span></p><p><span>Because the head is so complex and includes so many organs, the risk of rejection is much higher.</span></p><h2><span>3. The surgery has to happen in under an hour</span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In a 1970s experiment that would never be allowed today, <a href="http://io9.com/5856747/a-short-film-about-the-monkey-head-transplant-experiment-of-the-1960s">neurosurgeon Robert White transplanted the head of a monkey onto the body of a donor monkey</a>. He maintained the monkey bodies by cooling them to about 59 degrees Fahrenheit for the duration of the procedure. The monkey with the transplanted head survived until the immune system rejected the head eight days after the surgery, and the monkey died.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One big catch, though: The whole thing has to be done in under an hour, according to White's experiments and Canavero's paper.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Canavero notes <a href="http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint_articles/heaven-the-head-anastomosis-venture-project-outline-for-the-first-human-head-transplantation-with-spinal-linkage-gemini/">in his paper</a> that both of the heads would have to be removed from their bodies at the same time. Working swiftly, the surgeons would have to reattach the head of the person they want to keep alive to the circulatory system of the donor's body while both bodies are under total cardiac arrest. All of this would happen in less than an hour.</span></span></p><p><span>Canavero has also come under some fire recently for allegations that his claims are linked with a marketing ploy for a video game. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-hoax-2015-4">Canavero told Business Insider last week</a> that he had zero involvement with the game, "Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain," and had never heard of the game's producer or his company.</span></p><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">4. Spinal cords are (obviously) incredibly tricky to fuse</span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For the preserved head to be able to communicate with and control its new body, the spinal cord and the brain must be seamlessly connected, or fused.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This didn't happen with the monkey transplant. While the monkey whose head was transplanted onto a donor body was able to see, move its eyes, and eat, it was paralyzed from the neck down.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The greatest technical hurdle" to a head transplant, Canavero writes in his paper, "is of course the reconnection of the donor's (D)'s and recipients (R)'s spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Canevero's technology is "a special biological glue," he said in a recent TED talk, called polyethylene glycol. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826">Some experimental surgeons in the 1930s and 1940s used this material, which is a type of plastic,</a> to fuse the spinal cords of dogs, but these experiments typically involved attaching a foreign head to the complete body of a dog (artificially giving it two heads), not replacing one dog's head with that of another. These procedures were also done in less than an hour.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">After the procedure, one of Canavero's patients would be placed in a coma for up to a month to allow the spinal cords to fuse. Otherwise, the "spaghetti" (as he calls it) that makes up the spinal cord could become gnarled or twisted. </span></p><p>But such a long coma is a potential problem as well, <a href="http://www.popsci.com/no-human-head-transplants-will-not-be-possible-2017">Harry Goldsmith, a University of California at Davis professor of neurosurgery, told Popular Science</a>, because medically induced comas often result in infection, blood clots, and reduced brain activity.</p><h2>5. The procedure has to work in animal trials before being done in humans</h2><p>Before head transplantation moves into trials in people, all of these problems have to be addressed in animal trials. And there are hurdles to getting animal experiments approved that involve so much cruelty. The bar for approving any such procedure, then, would have to involve proving that it is both helpful and necessary.</p><p>So far, there's no concrete evidence that any of this is happening yet, and Canavero's team's video of the dog has yet to be verified, which means any type of surgery approaching this level of risk probably remains decades off, at the least.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NkM2V1MDE6-8z9H2URYzmg-7E8697i_d" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The Italian surgeon who plans to do the world's first head transplant only has to solve these 5 problems first

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TheWhy</span></p><p class="caption">A clip from the Konami video game "Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain," shows a man who shares Canavero's exact likeness.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero made <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-from-the-surgeon-who-wants-to-perform-first-ever-head-transplant-2015-6">headlines around the world</a> last year with the bold claim that he'd soon be stitching someone's head onto another person's body.</p><p>And it looks like he's not the only person with dreams of performing what have been called head transplants, or more appropriately, full-body transplants.</p><p><span>Chinese orthopedic surgeon Dr. Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/world/asia/china-body-transplant.html?_r=0">told the New York Times</a> he was building a team to perform the procedure. </span></p><p><span>Unlike Canavero, who merely dreamt of the idea, Ren allegedly has plans to carry it out, the Times reports. The operation would happen, he said, "when we are ready."</span></p><p><span>Nearly two decades ago, Ren was part of a <a href="http://www.handtransplant.com/TheDoctors/TheNationsFirstHandTransplantTeam/tabid/82/Default.aspx?version=meter+at+11&amp;module=meter-Links&amp;pgtype=article&amp;contentId=&amp;mediaId=&amp;referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&amp;priority=true&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=meter-links-click">team</a> from the University of Louisville that helped perform the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/us/doctors-in-louisville-perform-nation-s-first-hand-transplant.html?pagewanted=all&amp;version=meter+at+11&amp;module=meter-Links&amp;pgtype=article&amp;contentId=&amp;mediaId=&amp;referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&amp;priority=true&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=meter-links-click">first hand transplant</a><span> in the US. He spent 16 years in America before returning home to Harbin, China. The doctor</span> has made headlines previously for doing <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/surgerys-far-frontier-head-transplants-1433525830">thousands of head transplants on mice</a>, but the animals lived only a day. Ren told the Times he had also begun practicing on human cadavers, but did not give details.</p><p data-para-count="202" data-total-count="6557">The idea of full-body transplants has been explored by a number of scientists looking to do  <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/valery-spiridonov-head-transplant-2015-4">saving people from deadly diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy</a>, and extending life. But the challenges of such an endeavor are intense, to say the least.</p><p data-para-count="202" data-total-count="6557">Here are five of the main obstacles scientists would have to overcome before doing such a transplant:</p><h2>1. Heads can't stay alive on their own</h2><p>In any transplant, the donor organ (the one that's been taken from a donor's body) has to be kept alive until it can be placed into the recipient's body.</p><p><span>As soon as an organ gets removed from a body, it begins to die.</span></p><p><span>For things like heart or kidney transplants, doctors cool the organ to keep it viable for as long as possible. Cooling the organ helps reduce the amount of energy its cells need to stay alive.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty Images/Christopher Furlong</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Doctors accomplish this by bathing the organ in a solution of cold salt water (saline). This process <a href="http://www.transweb.org/faq/q24.shtml">preserves kidneys for 48 hours, livers for 24 hours, and hearts for about 5-10 hours</a>.</p><p><span>But a head would be a far more difficult process. </span><span>A head isn't just an isolated organ. It's the heaviest and one of the most complex parts of the body. It houses not just your brain, but also your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin, as well as two separate gland systems: the pituitary, which controls the hormones that circulate throughout the body, and the salivary, which are responsible for producing saliva.</span></p><p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gRgBAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA222&amp;lpg=PA222&amp;dq=blood+pressure+decapitation&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=6vBko8FMMK&amp;sig=hpini9SesR_wDHKYmpUmbdETU14&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=UIo6VZqhLKfmsASg5oDYCg&amp;ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&amp;q=blood%20pressure%20decapitation&amp;f=false">More than a century of disturbing animal research</a> has shown that at the moment of decapitation, blood pressure in the head drops dramatically. The resulting loss of fresh blood and oxygen pushes the brain into a coma, soon followed by death.</p><p>This brings us to the next problem.</p><h2><span>2. The immune system has to be coaxed into accepting a foreign head</span></h2><p><span>As with any transplant, one of the main issues facing patients is that of their own body: <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000815.htm">If the immune system flags the foreign organ (or organs, in this case) as foreign, it can unleash a full-scale attack</a>.</span></p><p><span>What happens in this case is that the immune system of the person receiving the new organ detects immune-triggering substances, called antigens, on the cells of the new organ. These antigens don't match those found on non-foreign organs. This is why almost all transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs after their procedure.</span></p><p><span>Because the head is so complex and includes so many organs, the risk of rejection is much higher.</span></p><h2><span>3. The surgery has to happen in under an hour</span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In a 1970s experiment that would never be allowed today, <a href="http://io9.com/5856747/a-short-film-about-the-monkey-head-transplant-experiment-of-the-1960s">neurosurgeon Robert White transplanted the head of a monkey onto the body of a donor monkey</a>. He maintained the monkey bodies by cooling them to about 59 degrees Fahrenheit for the duration of the procedure. The monkey with the transplanted head survived until the immune system rejected the head eight days after the surgery, and the monkey died.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One big catch, though: The whole thing has to be done in under an hour, according to White's experiments and Canavero's paper.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Canavero notes <a href="http://www.surgicalneurologyint.com/article.asp?issn=2152-7806;year=2013;volume=4;issue=2;spage=335;epage=342;aulast=Canavero">in his paper</a> that both of the heads would have to be removed from their bodies at the same time. Working swiftly, the surgeons would have to reattach the head of the person they want to keep alive to the circulatory system of the donor's body while both bodies are under total cardiac arrest. All of this would happen in less than an hour.</span></span></p><p><span>Canavero has also come under some fire recently for allegations that his claims are linked with a marketing ploy for video game. Canavero told Business Insider last week that he has zero involvement with the game and has never heard of the game's producer or his company.</span></p><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">4. Spinal cords are (obviously) incredibly tricky to fuse </span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In order for the preserved head to be able to communicate with and control its new body, the spinal cord and the brain must be seamlessly connected, or fused.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This didn't happen with the monkey transplant. While the monkey who's head was transplanted onto a donor body was able to see, move its eyes, and eat, it was paralyzed from the neck down.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The greatest technical hurdle" to a head transplant, Canavero writes in his paper, "is of course the reconnection of the donor's (D)'s and recipients (R)'s spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Canevero's technology is "a special biological glue," he said in a recent TED talk, called polyethylene glycol. In the 1930s and 40s, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826">some experimental surgeons have used this material, which is a type of plastic</a>, to fuse the spinal cords of dogs, but these experiments typically involved attaching a foreign head to the complete body of a dog (artificially giving it two heads), not replacing one dog's head with that of another. These procedures were also done in less than an hour.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">After the procedure, one of Canavero's patients would be placed in a coma for up to a month to allow the spinal cords to fuse. Otherwise, the "spaghetti" (as he calls it) that makes up the spinal cord could become gnarled or twisted. </span></p><p>But such a long coma is a potential problem as well, <a href="http://www.popsci.com/no-human-head-transplants-will-not-be-possible-2017">Harry Goldsmith, University of California, Davis professor of neurosurgery, told Popular Science</a>, because medically induced comas often result in infection, blood clots, and reduced brain activity.</p><h2>5. The procedure has to work in animal trials before being done in humans</h2><p>Before head transplantation moves into trials in people, all of these problems have to be addressed in animal trials. And there are hurdles to getting animal experiments approved that involve so much cruelty. The bar for approving any such procedure, then, would have to involve proving that it is both helpful and necessary.</p><p>So far, there's no evidence that any of this is happening yet, which means any type of surgery approaching this level of risk is decades off, at the least.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-implant-paraplegics-walk-royal-melbourne-hospital-stentrode-2016-2">Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NkM2V1MDE6-8z9H2URYzmg-7E8697i_d" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A Chinese surgeon plans to perform the world's first full-body transplant - here are the 5 biggest obstacles we'd have to overcome first

<p><em><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/billionaire-jeffrey-epstein-in-cambridge-ma-on-9-8-04-news-photo/589141200?adppopup=true">Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA on September 8, 2004.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></em></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Convicted sex offender <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-jeffery-epstein-money-manager-sexual-trafficking-connected-2019-7">Jeffrey Epstein</a> reportedly told scientists he wanted to <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">"seed the human race"</a> with his DNA by impregnating 20 women at a time at his New Mexico ranch, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html">The New York Times</a>.</li><li>The idea may be connected to Epstein's interest in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-transhumanism-2013-12#still-smaller-devices-could-latch-on-to-our-neurons-to-enhance-our-cognitive-functions-or-even-make-a-complete-copy-of-our-brain-27">transhumanism</a>: the belief that the human brain and body can and should be artificially enhanced using modern <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and technology.</li><li>Epstein reportedly discussed the New Mexico baby ranch idea with various scientists, but there is no evidence that he acted on it.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged earlier this month with trafficking dozens of underage girls, reportedly told various scientists in the early 2000s that he wanted to <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">"seed the human race"</a> with his DNA, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>Epstein said he'd do this, The Times reports, by impregnating 20 women at a time at his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.</p><p>There is no evidence to suggest that Epstein took any steps toward making this vision a reality. But the idea reportedly stemmed from Epstein's interest in tge philosophy of transhumanism: The belief that people can (and should) artificially enhance the human body using modern technology.</p><p>Transhumanists herald genetic engineering and artificial intelligence as promising ways to improve human performance. <a href="https://humanityplus.org">They advocate</a>, essentially, for the use of technology - including nanomedicine, robotics, brain-computer integration, and more - that alters typical human physiology in order to better our body and brain.</p><h2>Epstein was fascinated with transhumanism</h2><p>According to The Times, Jaron Lanier, a pioneer of virtual reality, remembers talking to a NASA scientist who said Epstein's New Mexico baby ranch idea was inspired by the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank in Escondido, California. The sperm bank operated from 1979 to 1999 and was incorrectly rumored to contain only the sperm of Nobel laureates.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-dna-by-impregnating-women-2019-7">Jeffrey Epstein reportedly told scientists he wanted to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his New Mexico ranch</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach Post via AP,</span></p><p class="caption">In this July 30, 2008 photo, Jeffrey Epstein, center, appears in court in West Palm Beach, Florida.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz also told The Times that Epstein once brought up the topic of how humans could be improved genetically at a lunch that Epstein sponsored.</p><p>Epstein's dual interest in furthering his own DNA and "improving" the human gene pool plays into the biggest criticism of the transhumanist ideology: that it's on par with eugenics.</p><p>Eugenics is the science of deliberately breeding human beings to increase the likelihood of certain characteristics. It's associated with Nazi ideology - the party favored blond, blue-eyed, Aryan people and used the idea of eugenics to justify genocide.</p><h2>Transhumanism's political legacy</h2><p>Many transhumanists, however, are interested in other ways to improve human performance that don't have to do with altering the gene pool.</p><p>Prior to the 2016 election, for example, presidential candidate <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoltan Istvan</a> promised to work towards halting aging and death by merging technology with human biology. Istvan founded the <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/Platform.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Transhumanist Party</a>, a political party focused on using science and tech to solve major problems facing humanity.</p><p>Istvan sees aging and death as the biggest plagues of our time, and thinks technology offers a cure. He supports, for example, the use of bionic organs as transplants when natural organs fail.</p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Guger-Technologies-OG-mindBEAGLE/e72b2e54b225499ea0650e0d49c2eecf/8/0">Florian Voggeneder/Guger Technologies/Reuters</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></em></p><p>"I think people have just been conditioned to believe that this is just a natural part of existence, that that's the program," Istvan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zoltan-istvan-running-for-president-as-transhumanist-2015-8">previously told Business Insider</a>. "And so our job is to uncondition that. To tell them actually it was the program until we reached the 21st century and now all of a sudden we realize that with genetics and bionics and robotics that we have a real chance of stopping death and treating it as something much more similar to a disease than some natural phenomenon."</p><p>Cryonics, the controversial process of freezing a body with the goal of bringing it back to life later, also has a place in transhumanist thinking. Currently, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-embryos-survive-th/">it only works for human embryos</a>. But according to The Times, one unnamed transhumanist said he and Epstein once chatted about cryonics, and Epstein said he'd want his head and penis frozen.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-ai-artificial-intelligence-taught-itself-walk-2017-7">Google's DeepMind AI just taught itself to walk</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly wanted to 'seed the human race with his DNA' as part of his fascination with transhumanism. Here's what that means.

<p><div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source">Screenshot</p></div></div></div>This is spooky stuff, but it's real and it's already happening.</p>
<p>Humans are augmenting themselves with computers and technology that will expand their abilities, and it's going to get more advanced and morally complex as time passes.</p>
<p>Imagine transplanting your entire consciousness into a computer. That's a new type of immortality. Imagine having a robotic exoskeleton that's not just part of your body - it <em>is </em>your body. That's a new type of existence entirely.</p>
<p>An excellent documentary called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU1-YFbAifA">"Bionics, Transhumanism, And The End Of Evolution"</a> takes a look at the endless wonder and potential of what happens when blood-and-meat humanity meets steel-and-silicon technology. The results are amazing, but what's even more compelling is where this stuff goes down the road as it gets more and more advanced.</p>

Transhumanism Will Change Everything

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Lisa Memmel</span></p><p class="caption">Zoltan Istvan is a the founder of the Transhumanist Party, a political party that sees science and technology as the solution to most of the world's problems.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Taxes, climate change, the wage gap. These are just a few of the issues that both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are expected to tackle during their campaigns. </span></p><p>But presidential candidate <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/ZoltanIstvan.html" target="_blank">Zoltan Istvan</a> has another policy issue at the top of his list: death.</p><p>Istvan is the founder of the <a href="http://www.transhumanistparty.org/Platform.html" target="_blank">Transhumanist Party</a>, a political party that seeks to make longevity research just as big of an issue as social security or immigration.</p><p>For Istvan, aging and death are the biggest plague of our time. And science and technology are the cure.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"A big part of my own campaign is that aging is actually a disease and not something natural," Istvan told Tech Insider. "In the 21st century to not be using science and technology for everyone's direct health and longevity is something that should not be allowed anymore."</span></p><p>Unfortunately, the government doesn't see it this way and is investing very little in longevity research, Istvan said.</p><p>So the 42-year-old is setting out across the country next month to campaign on the platform of using technology to live forever. But his bus tour will be a bit more flashy than the rest.</p><p>Istvan - along with some embedded journalists, scientists, and other transhumanists - will be touring the nation in a converted RV disguised as a coffin - a reminder that the Grim Reaper is coming unless we take action to stop it.</p><h2>"We have a real chance of stopping death"</h2><p>Istvan and his supporters will kick off their tour in the so-called "Immortality Bus" on the west coast, stopping in cities across the nation sounding the alarm that there are not enough resources currently being invested in fighting death.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Zoltan Istvan</span></p><p class="caption">Istvan is currently working on transforming this  RV into the "Immortality Bus."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Istvan, like other transhumanists, said he believes that merging technology with human biology can radically extend life. For example, using bionic organs as transplants when our natural organs fail. But this kind of life extension technology will only become possible when people demand that more money be spent on longevity research.</p><p>"I think people have just been conditioned to believe that this is just a natural part of existence, that that's the program," Istvan said. "And so our job is to uncondition that. To tell them actually it was the program until we reached the 21st century and now all of a sudden we realize that with genetics and bionics and robotics that we have a real chance of stopping death and treating it as something much more similar to a disease than some natural phenomenon."</p><p>For the fiscal year of 2015, Congress allocated about $609.3 billion or 16% of all federal spending to the military. Total federal funds invested in the sciences was just $29.81 billion, or .78% of the same lot. And just a tiny fraction of that, if any, is being spent directly on things that qualify as longevity research, he said.</p><p>"We are not spending any of the money directly that could make us live considerably longer. For example, robotic hearts or 3D printed organs," he said. "There are things we can do out there if we just had the money if the scientists just had the resources, that they could tackle."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Rachel Lyn</span></p><p class="caption">The final design of the "Immortality Bus."</p></div><p></p></div></div>Istvan said that with an investment of $1 trillion in longevity research, the aging process could be stopped in just a decade. And in 20 years, researchers could even be capable of reversing the process, he said.</p><h2>The "Transhumanist Bill of Rights"</h2><p>Eventually, Istvan's bus party will make its way to the nation's capital to deliver a bill that requires the government support a longer lifespan via science and technology.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/David Becker</span></p><p class="caption">Istvan says he hopes his campaign forces other candidates to address policy issues related to technology.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"We are going to end in DC, walk up the steps of the US capitol building and deliver what we consider a Transhumanist Bill of Rights," he said. "There needs to be some type of mandate that says it's illegal to stop or not put forth resources into this type of science, because by not putting money and resources into this type of science you are effectively shortening people's' lives."</p><p>For example, when George W. Bush vetoed bills related to spending federal funds on stem cell research during his presidency, transhumanists would consider that a crime, Istvan said.</p><p>While Istvan acknowledges that he doesn't have any real chance of winning, he said he does hope that his audacious campaign gets a conversation started among other candidates about the future of technology in our country.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"When you are a third-party candidate, half of what you do is entertainment to be honest because you are actually trying to spread a message knowing you have very little chance of winning," he said. "I know it's probably going to fall on quite deaf ears, but we are going to deliver it nonetheless." </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-states-vote-presidential-elections-2015-7">This animated map shows how the states voted in every presidential election since the Civil War</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5oM2UydjoV-Si1Ui-V0VQIkiWDy2TEBG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This guy is running for president with the goal of using science to cure death and aging

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/Grégoire Lannoy</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>What exactly do you see when you're blind?</p><p>It varies - vision loss manifests in many different ways - but the variety of colors, the sharpness of shapes, and the details that most of us take for granted are usually out of reach.</p><p>"The central vision is sort of a blurred mish mosh of colors that is indistinguishable," Marc Muszynski, a 29-year-old whose vision is slowly fading away, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/keithhabersberger/what-its-like-to-be-going-blind#.wtdw3YrqR">told BuzzFeed</a>.  "Around that, the rest of it is pretty bad too."</p><p><span>Muszynski's experience, or something like it, is one shared by many: </span>Vision loss is one of the ten most common disabilities US adults face; it affects <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basic_information/vision_loss_burden.htm">more than 3.4 million Americans</a> over age 40.</p><p>Historically, there's been little we can do for someone going blind. Slowly but surely, that's starting to change.</p><h2>An 'audacious goal'</h2><p>In many cases, diseases that cause blindness <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/what-causes-blindness-2015-6">damage the retina at the back of the eye</a>, which contains the specialized nerve cells that make vision possible. Since the body only has limited means to repair nerve cells and can't replace dead ones, this damage is pretty much <a href="https://www.nei.nih.gov/audacious/aboutGoal">permanent</a> - at least for now.</p><p>The National Eye Institute has launched the <a href="https://www.nei.nih.gov/audacious">Audacious Goals Initiative</a>, the "audacious goal" being finding a way to regenerate those lost nerve cells and restore vision to millions.</p><p>Michael Steinmetz, the Director of Extramural Research for the National Eye Institute, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/how-scientists-might-cure-blindness-within-15-years-2015-5">said</a> he doesn't think reaching this goal in the next 15 years "is so far from reality."</p><p>As <a href="http://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/iezzi-raymond-jr-m-d/bio-00097403">Raymond Iezzi</a>, an eye surgeon and vision scientist at the Mayo Clinic told Tech Insider: "In the relatively near future we will have the ability to surgically or medically restore sight to the vast majority of patients who have lost their vision."</p><p>If the National Eye Institute and other efforts succeed, blindness could go from a common disability in the US to a rare ailment. Millions of people who lost their vision would be able to see again. We may fall short of these ambitious goals - but research is moving fast. </p><h2>The 'bionic eye'</h2><p>Already, some people who had lost virtually all of their sight due to a rare, incurable genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/bionic-eye-helped-blind-people-see-again-2015-7">have been able to see again for the first time in years</a> with the <a href="http://www.secondsight.com/g-the-argus-ii-prosthesis-system-pf-en.html">Argus II</a> "bionic eye."</p><p>Their restored vision isn't much like what we'd consider normal, but they can see edges and outlines of figures they couldn't before, which significantly improves their quality of life, Iezzi told Tech Insider.</p><p>Retinitis pigmentosa kills photoreceptors, nerve cells in the retina that convert light into an electrical signal the brain can interpret as vision. Without working photoreceptors, people with retinitis pigmentosa can't see.</p><p>The Argus II is a rough replacement for lost photoreceptors. It translates video images from a camera into electrical signals, which it then feeds to 60 electrodes on a chip that's been surgically implanted on a patient's retina. That chip stimulates nerve cells that connect to the part of the brain that interprets visual information, just as healthy photoreceptors would.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>University of Michigan/courtesy of Second Sight Medical Products</span></p><p class="caption">The Argus II's electrodes implanted at the back of the eye send electrical signals to the brain when photoreceptors have stopped working.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Scientists at the <a href="https://research.cmft.nhs.uk/news-events/manchester-royal-eye-hospital-and-second-sight-announce-global-surgical-first-with-manchester-patient">Manchester Royal Eye Hospital</a> in the United Kingdom are testing the Argus II in patients with a form of <a href="https://nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/armd_facts">age-related macular degeneration</a> (AMD), a more common cause of vision loss that also damages photoreceptors.</p><p>But Iezzi says the high-resolution vision most people with AMD lose is very different than the basic sight the Argus II gives people with retinitis pigmentosa. We'll have to wait and see whether the device is actually helpful for patients whose vision loss is less severe.</p><p>Fortunately, scientists are pursuing other possible treatments at the same time.</p><p>For his part, Iezzi is in the initial stages of developing a surgical procedure he thinks could help people with advanced macular degeneration. The disease damages photoreceptors only in the center of the retina; patients still have millions of healthy photoreceptors left in the rest of the eye. Relocating some of their remaining photoreceptors to the center of the retina could possibly restore the vision they've lost, without using an implant. If the procedure proves effective after tests in animals, Iezzi thinks it's possible people might be able to try it in roughly five years.</p><h2>Stem cells</h2><p>Scientists are also beginning to test whether various kinds of stem cells could preserve and even help restore vision in some cases of blindness.</p><p>AMD, for example, damages photoreceptors because it first kills the cells that take care of them. Researchers are now trying to grow those caretaker cells (called <a href="http://physrev.physiology.org/content/85/3/845.long">retinal pigment epithelium cells</a>) from stem cells. After growing enough of these cells, a surgeon would implant them into a patient's eye. The idea is that replacing the missing caretaker cells may preserve a patient's remaining photoreceptors.</p><p>A clinical trial at the University of California-Los Angeles tested retinal pigment epithelium cells made from <a href="http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics3.aspx">embryonic stem cells</a>. This type of stem cell is derived from human embryos, and can become any kind of cell in the body.</p><p>After about two years of follow up, the procedure hadn't caused serious issues in the eighteen patients in the trial, and it seemed the transplanted cells survived, the researchers <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673614613763">reported in The Lancet</a>. Putting stem cell products into humans is still so new that the scientists were mainly concerned about safety, but some patients' vision did improve.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclnews/9359421958/">Flickr/UCL News/Anai Gonzalez-Cordero</a></span></p><p class="caption">Retinal precursor cells made from embryonic stem cells.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Another <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02320812?term=retinal+progenitor+cells&amp;rank=1">clinical trial</a> of a stem cell treatment, this time for retinitis pigmentosa, is just beginning at the University of California-Irvine.</p><p>The stem cells in this trial are called <a href="https://www.cirm.ca.gov/our-progress/awards/retinal-progenitor-cells-treatment-retinitis-pigmentosa">retinal progenitor cells</a>, which are made from <a href="http://jcyte.com/our-technology/">fetal tissue</a>. These cells can become <a href="http://discovery.lifemapsc.com/in-vivo-development/eye/retinal-neuroblastic-layer/early-retinal-progenitor-cells">several different types of specialized nerve cells</a> found in the retina. The scientists hope the transplanted retinal progenitor cells will prevent photoreceptors from dying and even produce new photoreceptors, stopping patients with retinitis pigmentosa from losing their vision.</p><p>Someday, blind people might be able to get actual replacement photoreceptors from stem cells, rather than support cells. Scientists are already actively testing that approach in mice, <a href="http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v23/n6/full/cr201348a.html">with some success</a>. That research is still in the earliest stages.</p><p>Other approaches to replacing photoreceptors, instead of regenerating them, involve modifying cells patients still have, harnessing them to fill in for lost photoreceptors.</p><h2>Getting creative</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fundus_photograph_of_a_healthy_right_eye_(OD)_from_a_myopic_female_Asian_patient._Age_22.png">Wikimedia Commons/Jacopo Werther</a></span></p><p class="caption">The human retina as a doctor sees it in an eye exam.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Though retinitis pigmentosa and AMD damage photoreceptors, they leave the rest of the visual system intact. In particular, the cells that transmit information about light from working photoreceptors to the brain are still functional. Those are called retinal ganglion cells.</p><p>But without photoreceptors, these ganglion cells are "all dressed up with no place to go," <a href="https://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/kramer/index.html">Rich Kramer</a>, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley told Tech Insider.</p><p>Imagine that photoreceptors act like a magic mirror, translating images from the world into information that can be processed by retinal ganglion cells and eventually the rest of the brain. When that mirror shatters or goes dark, the retinal ganglion cells are awaiting information that never comes. The photoreceptors can't let the light in, so your brain never sees it - even though it's perfectly capable of vision.</p><p>Kramer and his colleagues work on one way to leverage these still functional retinal ganglion cells to restore vision: by making them sensitive to light so they can replace dead photoreceptors and do double duty.</p><p>To do this, they've developed a molecule called a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3933823/">photoswitch</a> that changes shape in response to light. When the molecule gets into retinal ganglion cells, it makes them able to sense light and pass on what they sense to the brain.</p><p>After an injection of the photoswitch molecule, previously blind mice behave as if they can can see light, Kramer said.</p><p>Promising treatments that work in mice often never work in humans. But if this research makes it through animal trials and is successfully tested in humans, it could eventually yield a drug treatment for some causes of blindness. Patients would get periodic injections of the molecule to restore their vision.</p><p>There's at least one other way scientists have tried to leverage those functional retinal ganglion cells. Researchers insert an extra gene into the cells so that they make a protein that responds to light. This approach is called <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-rewire-eye">optogenetics</a>, and works in a similar way to gene therapy.</p><p>But because the gene added is not normally part of the human genome (it's from a type of algae), scientists will have to be particularly careful in vetting the approach before trying it in humans. For now, it's used mainly as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html">a research tool</a> to "see" activity in the brains of rodents. Any possible clinical applications are a long way off.</p><p>An optogenetic or photoswitch treatment for blindness could eventually make retinal implants obsolete, Iezzi said. Such a treatment could provide over a million replacement photoreceptors, rather than the 60 electrodes the Argus II provides today. That would mean the brain would get much more information about light than is currently possible, and restored vision could one day be much sharper.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeissmicro/14256015437/">Flickr/ZEISS Microscopy/Wei Li, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health</a></span></p><p class="caption">Photoreceptors (long and green at the top of the picture) are one of a few types of cells in the retina.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>An ounce of prevention</h2><p>Scientists are trying to restore vision in a number of exciting ways, but preventing people from losing good vision in the first place would be even better.</p><p>"Protecting a patient's sight would ultimately have a better impact in terms of their quality of vision than restoring it after it's been lost," Iezzi said.</p><p><a href="http://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/fautsch-michael-p-ph-d/bio-00026344">Michael Fautsch</a>, who heads ophthalmology research at the Mayo Clinic, is one of many scientists working on ways to treat diseases that cause blindness and stop the damage before eyesight gets too bad.</p><p>He and his team are developing a new drug for <a href="https://nei.nih.gov/health/glaucoma/glaucoma_facts">glaucoma</a>, a group of diseases that sometimes cause fluid to build up in the eye, putting pressure on the optic nerve and damaging it. What they're working on would act on the main pathway through which fluid normally leaves the eye to relieve the damaging pressure, he told Tech Insider. Currently, glaucoma drugs target a minor fluid drainage pathway.</p><p>Vision research in general is in an exciting place, Fautsch said. Years of research into how different diseases damage the eye and cause vision loss are today helping scientists develop novel strategies for treatment.</p><p>"Technology is moving so fast, our understanding is moving so fast that I think the future holds great promise," he said.</p><p>The promise of the future is that someday, no type of vision loss will be untreatable. Science has a ways to go, but one day it may be inconceivable that so many people ever became permanently blind.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/second-sight-first-bionic-eyes-2014-8">What It's Like To Be Among The First People In The World To Have A Bionic Eye</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1hc3NnbzqkTCFxd1OIV5oXIKO1sHRtft" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "bionic transplants" and got 11 results

Researchers are one step closer to creating real cybernetic transplants

BI India Bureau

An outlandish surgeon is aiming to transplant human heads as a way to beat mortality

Erin Brodwin

A surgeon aiming to do the first human head transplant says 'Frankenstein' predicted a crucial part of the surgery

Erin Brodwin

An outlandish surgeon who aims to do the first head transplant has severed and reconnected the spinal cords of 9 mice

Erin Brodwin

An outlandish surgeon who aims to perform the first head transplant just gave a rat a second head

Erin Brodwin

The Italian surgeon who plans to do the world's first head transplant only has to solve these 5 problems first

Erin Brodwin

A Chinese surgeon plans to perform the world's first full-body transplant - here are the 5 biggest obstacles we'd have to overcome first

Erin Brodwin

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly wanted to 'seed the human race with his DNA' as part of his fascination with transhumanism. Here's what that means.

Aylin Woodward

Transhumanism Will Change Everything

Dylan Love

This guy is running for president with the goal of using science to cure death and aging

Cadie Thompson

An ambitious group of scientists are trying to end blindness forever

Ellie Kincaid

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