Cryosphere Podcast Mark Woodward - A Revolution in Cryoprotectants
Apr 6, 2025
Mark Woodward, founder of Wake Bio and former AI researcher at Google Brain, dives deep into the world of cryoprotectants. He reveals how machine learning is being used to discover chemical combinations that protect biological tissues during freezing. Starting with zebrafish, Mark's ambitious goal is to achieve whole-body human preservation. He discusses the challenges of transitioning from lab to reality, rapid warming methods, and the ongoing debate between biological reanimation and uploading. With a five-year target for preserving adult mice and a ten-year vision for humans, the future of cryonics is looking bright.
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AI To Navigate Vast Cryoprotectant Space
- Cryoprotectants must prevent ice formation and reduce solute concentration spikes to avoid mechanical and biochemical damage.
- Machine learning can efficiently search the enormous continuous space of chemical mixtures to find less-toxic, better-performing cryoprotectants.
Why Vitrification Beats Ice
- Ice forms below 0°C and concentrates solutes, causing protein denaturation and osmotic damage.
- Vitrification (glass formation) avoids ice by cooling fast enough and using cryoprotectants to raise glass transition.
Run ML-Guided High-Throughput Screens
- Prioritize high-throughput experiments guided by ML to scan chemical compositions efficiently.
- Use models to propose promising cocktails before wet-lab testing to save time and resources.