Does OBP plan to eventually expand their services outside the USA?
In terms of our staff traveling to other locations to do the preservation procedure, unfortunately not in the immediate future. We don’t have the funding for this right now.
And how much would it cost if you didn’t subsidize it?
There are so many factors. It depends a lot on where in the world we are talking about. If we are talking about someone who legally dies locally in Salem, perhaps a minimal estimated budget would be (off the top of my head, unofficial, subject to change):
Labor cost of brain preservation = ~$500-1000
Cost of chemicals, disposable equipment = ~$100-300
Cost of death certificate, cremation, funeral services fees for the rest of the body = ~$1000-1500
Long-term preservation cost = very difficult to estimate, depends on economies of scale, and other factors, perhaps ~$1000-2000
These are rough estimates. But generally speaking, there is a reason that many brain banks around the world are also able to allow people to donate their brains for free. There are many many thousands of brains preserved in this way throughout the world. It is not nearly as expensive as traditional cryonics. Here is some more information about costs for similar type of procedure from the Brain Support Network: https://www.brainsupportnetwork.org/brain-donation/brain-donation-faq/
Cost is a common complaint about cryonics so I could see you becoming much bigger than the cryonics orgs, but judging by the website you look quite small. Do you know why that is?
I don’t know. A couple of guesses are that we are just getting started and not really doing any marketing because our focus is on researching the preservation methods. Also, it is likely that many people are skeptical of the preservation methods that we use, since they are new and different than others, as well as being experimental. Here is some more information about our research program, which you might find interesting: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/c28hm
Thanks for your interest!
In terms of our staff traveling to other locations to do the preservation procedure, unfortunately not in the immediate future. We don’t have the funding for this right now.
There are so many factors. It depends a lot on where in the world we are talking about. If we are talking about someone who legally dies locally in Salem, perhaps a minimal estimated budget would be (off the top of my head, unofficial, subject to change):
Labor cost of brain preservation = ~$500-1000
Cost of chemicals, disposable equipment = ~$100-300
Cost of death certificate, cremation, funeral services fees for the rest of the body = ~$1000-1500
Long-term preservation cost = very difficult to estimate, depends on economies of scale, and other factors, perhaps ~$1000-2000
These are rough estimates. But generally speaking, there is a reason that many brain banks around the world are also able to allow people to donate their brains for free. There are many many thousands of brains preserved in this way throughout the world. It is not nearly as expensive as traditional cryonics. Here is some more information about costs for similar type of procedure from the Brain Support Network: https://www.brainsupportnetwork.org/brain-donation/brain-donation-faq/
I don’t know. A couple of guesses are that we are just getting started and not really doing any marketing because our focus is on researching the preservation methods. Also, it is likely that many people are skeptical of the preservation methods that we use, since they are new and different than others, as well as being experimental. Here is some more information about our research program, which you might find interesting: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/c28hm