What are your thoughts on cryogenic preservation and the idea of medically treating aging?
His response:
A marvelous way to just convince people to give you money. Offer to freeze them for later. I'd have more confidence if we had previously managed to pull this off with other mammals. Until then I see it as a waste of money. I'd rather enjoy the money, and then be buried, offering my body back to the flora and fauna of which I have dined my whole life.
The questions you ask are very complex. The short answers (and then I'm really leaving the question at that point until a longer article is ready):
Rehydration involves pulling off the stabilizer molecules (glycerol, trehalose) and replacing them dynamically with water. This can induce folding changes, some of which are irreversible. This is not theoretical: many biochemists have to deal with this in their daily work.
Membrane distortions also distort relative position of proteins within that membrane (and the structure of synaptic scaffold, a complex protein structure that underlies the synaptic membrane). Regenerating the membrane and returning it to the original shape and position doesn't necessarily return membrane-bound molecules to their original position.
Question:
His response:
Link