Contacting Dr. Robert White: A Famous Surgeon

[dreamingofouterspace]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone knew a way I could contact Dr. Robert White

there's an article about him here, http://bennun.biz/interviews/drwhite.html
hes kind of famous for doing stuff like transplanting monkey heads onto other monkeys

Thanks for your help, Id really appreciate it

 

[Monique]

Here is the original article Surgery. 1971 Jul;70(1):135-9. Cephalic exchange transplantation in the monkey. White RJ, Wolin LR, Massopust LC Jr, Taslitz N, Verdura J.

His latest article seems to be this one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15113336 you should be able to get contat information from that.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

Thanks. I can't access that page right now because I am not a subscriber but maybe I'll be able to later

 

[Monique]

You should be able to get the article at a university library, or search that database for articles by him that are freely available (use the search term White RJ [au], additionally some other terms).

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

I did have a quick question, if you wanted to transplant the head and spinal cord (without detaching them from each other) of someone into someone else, would you be unable to do so (without paralysing the person or something) because of sciatic nerves and other nerves?

 

[DocToxyn]

I did have a quick question, if you wanted to transplant the head and spinal cord (without detaching them from each other) of someone into someone else, would you be unable to do so (without paralysing the person or something) because of sciatic nerves and other nerves?

The short answer is no. As soon as the nerves were severed, the "person" would indeed be "paralyzed". I put these in quotes because said person is only a brain and spinal cord and paralyzed might not have the same context because paralysis is partly defined by the loss of connection/control/sensation between two parts and you have essentially isolated those parts. In other words, is a severed limb paralyzed or simply non-functional, I think there is some degree of connectivity required.

To comment on the paper cited by monique, it is an interesting, if not slightly cringe-worthy, description of cephalosomatic transfer involving only vasular connections to keep the head alive. From the article

...periods of viability ranged from 6 to 36 hours...evidence of its awareness by accepting and attempting to chew food placed in mouth...the cephalons remained basically pugnacious in their attitudes, as demonstrated by their biting if orally stimulated. RJ White et al., Surgery 1971, v.70 p. 135-139.

Since only vascular connections were established, the brain couldn't communicate with host body, which really functioned only as a living life support machine. Such reconnection of the transected spinal cord has only recently been accomplished and not with 100% recovery. To attempt a total reconnection of all nerve fibers between the CNS and the body would currently be an unrealistic feat (although I can't say impossible at some point in the future).

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

Would you be more likely to be able to attempt a total reconnection of all nerve fibers between the CNS and the body (successfully) if you were transplanting the person into a clone of themselves?

Secondly, could you transplant the spinal cord and head (either into a clone or not into a clone) without severing the nerve fibres between the CNS and the bodY? I mean could you transplant those nerve fibers into the new body as well? (I guess youd have to sever them from the old body though) (Could you reconnect them in the new body after transplanting them if they were still intact and stuff or what)

 

[DocToxyn]

Wow, you're pulling out all the stops . It's not so much an issue of tissue rejection, which I think is what you're getting at with the clone host. It restablishing all those connections that allow the brain to control the body and the body to interact with the brain. The CNS is not well known for its regenerative properties so it's not as simple as "slide spinal cord A into vertebral column B and stitch back up". All the severed nerves would have to be reattached which from a numbers standpoint would be technically daunting, ignoring the fact that they won't grow back together without some fancy manipulation, re. the article I cited in previous post.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

Are you saying re-attaching all the severed nerves would be pretty much impossible and that you wouldn't be able to live a normal life with the new body because for example the nerves wouldn't grow back together without manipulation or something?

 

[DocToxyn]

Are you saying re-attaching all the severed nerves would be pretty much impossible and that you wouldn't be able to live a normal life with the new body because for example the nerves wouldn't grow back together without manipulation or something?

Bingo!, you got it. BTW, contacting Dr. White may be difficult due to the problems he has had with animal rights groups in the past, good luck.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

Yah I can't email him using the email address in those articles
Thanks for helping me though
Does anyone else know any way I could contact him?

 

[hypatia]

there's major research going on right now concerning stem cells and nerve regeneration in host tissue. It may not be so far fetched in the future.
Thank-you C Reeves foundation.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

well would you be able to re-attach all the severed nerves if you took like a year to do it or something?

I mean because it looks like the only nerves youd need to re-attach are the

subcoastal nerve
intercoastal nerve
common peroneal nerve
deep peroneal nerve
superficial peroneal nerve
genitofemoral nerve
obturator nerve
ulnar nerve
musculocutaneous nerve
radial nerve
median nerve
lilohypogastric nerve
tibial nerve
saphenous nerve
muscular branches of femoral nerve
sciatic nerve
pudendal nerve
femoral nerve

well I mean according to this diagram
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/images/446/nervoussystematlas.gif

 

[hypatia]

Try contacting Ohio state University dept of Neurosurgery, they may have a forwarding address. You do realize he is retired..but someone else in that dept my be able to help you.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

Thanks, hopefully they'll be able to help me

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

So anyways my friend and I were kind of having an argument

I said "You could transplant..by transplant I mean sort of glue...the skin from a clone of yourself onto you...so your skin would never look old.." but would that work? I mean it wouldn't be like a skin transplant, exactly... It would be like permanently attaching young skin (Eg from a clone, so that it looked like your skin, or from some other source) onto your own skin, so that it wouldn't look old.

I don't know, I guess that doesn't make sense but I sort of wanted to hear comments on it so I could solve the argument
Thanks

 

[hypatia]

Dolly the sheep was grown from a single cell removed from a 6-year-old ewe. Early on findings rattled scientists by hinting that on a genetic level, she seemed to have "inherited" those six years of age at birth. The tips of chromosomes inside her cells appeared to be shorter than usual, it seems these bundles of DNA, which typically shrink with age, had retained a degree of memory from their former life.
Of course there is nothing to compare Dolly with. They don't knowfor sure if this will happen again, or if would happen with humans.
You know your skin is your largest organ, I can't imagin transplanting a entire body,

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

lol it looks like your post kind of got cut off because it ended with a comma

Basically what I was wondering was...it wouldn't really be like an organ transplant. Because your normal skin would be underneath. But could you somehow permanently attack somebody elses skin to your skin...at least like the top layer...and then keep the organ functioning or whatever with cream that had oxygen or whatever the skin needed in it?

 

[hypatia]

Wow that was a odd post of mine, I have no idea where the rest of it went.
But the gist of the answer was no.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

nooooooo the post got cut off
Now the debate between my friend and I will never have closure. I mean are you saying there's no way you could do that? I guess you don't want to retype the post if it was really long

 

[hypatia]

ok ..problems in less detail.
The under skin would still shed cells, hair ..bacteria would grow. The stench would be horrid. Infection would set in.
The "new" skin would need blood, every square inch of it. Cut us anywhere and we bleed.
The "new" skin would half to be able to resist infections.
You would need some way to tack it on, so it wouldn't sag or have ripples.

 

[dreamingofouterspace]

could you make the new skin or covering or whatever shed the same cells and hair that the old skin shed?

I guess the new skin would die without blood?