Stephen Coles 1941 — 2014
December 4, 2014
Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D
Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D, passed away on December 3 of complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 73.
L. [Leslie] Stephen Coles was a Lecturer in Gerontology at the University California, Los Angeles, in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Since he started teaching at UCLA in 1986, he taught for the Computer Science Department, the Surgical Department, and the Fiat Lux Program for Freshman.
He tracked the oldest people in the world for more than 20 years, and published the most recent five years of his research in the journal PLoS ONE. Coles performed autopsies on 12 “supercentenarians,” people who are 110 years old or older, more than any other pathologist. Further details on his research can be found at www.grg.org.
He is survived by a wife Natalie, a daughter Electra McBurnie, and one granddaughter, Cailyn McBurnie. He is in cryopreservation at Alcor Life Extension Foundation with the expectation of future revival.
Comments (5)
by Linda6547
I just don’t quite understand how we can transplant lungs, hearts, eyes, kidneys and other organs, even live without some of our parts like tonsils, spleen, appendix, but we can’t figure out how to transplant the pancreas or even regenerate it from cells that are still healthy within the organ. I don’t get it. We should be able to grow a pancreas outside or inside the body successfully. What is so complicated about that precious organ?
By the time medical science catches up and hopefully revives him, his family, sadly, unless they, too, are frozen, may not be here.
Also the science of the world will have surpassed his current level of knowledge to such a great extent that his future contributions, may be negligible. I guess, I am not a fan of this type of life preserver. FIP is a great way to say it.
by turtles_allthewaydown
It wasn’t just the loss of the pancreas that killed him, it was the spread of cancer to the rest of his body. The pancreas is just where it started.
But you’re right, if we could grow a new organ, take the diseased one out quickly, maybe do some insulin therapy until the new organ is ready, then we avoid the whole stage IV cancer problem.
They’re working on growing new organs, and the pancreas is probably one of the easier ones to do. But you do need a scaffold to hold the shape and to bring in blood vessels and such while the organ cells are growing and assembling. It’s not a simple task.
by DSM
Ah, good luck with that. Look me up when you get reassembled in 2060.
by advancedatheist
Cryonicsts don’t “pass away.” We try to “pass forward,” to the more capable health care of future times for second opinions about our conditions.
by pault01
May he FIP. (Freeze in Peace).