The Science of Hypersleep
Is it possible to put humans into hibernation? Find out in this discussion from ALD 2021.
Hypersleep is a common theme in science fiction, but what does science have to say about putting humans into suspended animation? What can we learn from hibernating animals? What’s the difference between hibernation and sleep? What health impacts would extended hypersleep have?
Ada Lovelace Day and the Arthur C. Clarke Award invite you to join science fiction author Anne Charnock, Prof Gina Poe, an expert on the relationship between sleep and memory, Dr Anusha Shankar, who studies torpor in hummingbirds, and Prof Kelly Drew, who studies hibernation in squirrels, for a discussion of whether hypersleep in humans is possible.
About our speakers
Anne Charnock
Anne Charnock’s novel Dreams Before the Start of Time — winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2018 — deals with the science of human reproduction and advances in reproductive technologies including artificial wombs. Her dystopian novels A Calculated Life and Bridge 108 imagine the social and economic fall-out from climate breakdown. A Calculated Life was shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award. Anne’s novella The Enclave won the British Science Fiction Award in 2017. Her writing career began in science journalism and her articles appeared in The Guardian, New Scientist and the International Herald Tribune. Anne has a degree in Environmental Sciences and an MA in Fine Art.
Website: annecharnock.com
Twitter: @annecharnock
Facebook: ACalculatedLife
Instagram: annecharnock
Prof Gina Poe
Gina Poe is a California native educated and Stanford (BA) and UCLA (PhD Neuroscience) then moving to postdoc with Carol Barnes and Bruce McNaughton in Tucson AZ. Her research forte is mechanistic explanations of how sleep serves memory. In her first faculty position at Washington State University she earned the R01 grant “REM Sleep and Memory” and her first graduate student Theresa Bjorness, both of which she took to the Univ. Michigan.
In 2016 Dr. Poe moved back to a full professor position at UCLA, doing research, teaching, and leading several programs to increase diversity in Neuroscience. Current research projects include how sleep serves the gain of insight, erases extraneous information, differs between male and females, and turns maladaptive in post-traumatic stress disorder. Her lab has 6 PhD students and 2 Postdoctoral Scholars. She and her husband have 4 children and one granddaughter. Her favourite activities include reading great fiction, hiking the hills, watching movies, and singing in her rock band.
Website: poe-sleeplab.weebly.com
Twitter: @doctorpoe
Instagram: poe.gina
Prof Kelly Drew
Kelly Drew is an expert in mammalian hibernation. She studies mechanisms and metabolic adaptations of hibernating mammals. Kelly believes that fundamental knowledge about the nature and behaviour of hibernating mammals has potential to enhance human health and advance technology for deep space exploration.
Kelly’s research group identified a mechanism and drug for inducing hibernation. They are now working to develop this drug for use in humans. Kelly and her group also discovered that nitrogen is recycled during long-winter fasts in hibernating ground squirrels. How the animals do this may hold clues for preventing muscle loss in astronauts and in humans with medical conditions.
Kelly holds a PhD in neuropharmacology from Albany Medical School and completed a post-doctoral fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden before returning to her home state Alaska. She is now a Professor of Biochemistry and Neuroscience and Directs the Center for Transformative Research in Metabolism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is also the founder of Be Cool Pharmaceutics, a small molecule drug discovery biotech company focused on developing drugs to mimic adaptations of hibernation for neurocritical care and other therapeutic applications.
Websites: trimalaska.com and uaf.edu/chem/faculty/kdrew
LinkedIn: kelly-drew-20157217
YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=MQVnnhFaF9M
Dr Anusha Shankar
Anusha Shankar studies hummingbirds as a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She is fascinated by hummingbirds’ ability to use a hibernation-like state called torpor to save energy at night. She is investigating how they can get cold (to around 10°C or 50°F) and rewarm safely every night, without damaging organs like their hearts and brains.
During her PhD, Anusha captured hummingbird nightlife with infrared video, and before that tracked king cobras and studied giant birds—hornbills—in India. Anusha is also a National Geographic Explorer and Young Leader and loves mentoring students, dancing salsa, bachata, and swing, and reading fiction.
Website: anushashankar.weebly.com
Twitter: nushiamme
LinkedIn: anusha-shankar-069a44a
Instagram: nushiamme
YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoTajxRPVN4RFCztLwsl63-7ebm-Kel7r
About the Arthur C Clarke Award
The annual Arthur C. Clarke Award is given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award judges are a voluntary body with members nominated by the award’s supporting organisations, currently the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Sci-Fi-London film festival.
Website: clarkeaward.com
Twitter: @clarkeaward