mischievous grin and an offbeat sense of humor. In our first five minutes on the phone, I learned
that Goldy Gopher—mascot of the UMN sports teams—actually has the exact physical characteristics of a thirteen-lined ground
squirrel and that Lawrence Welk bought his first accordion by saving up bounty money, a dollar at a time, from hunting ground
squirrels and turning their skins in to state hunting officials. Ground squirrels used to be considered quite a pest in Minnesota—they
still are by many people—but they’ve also become the focus of some heavy-duty research.
Andrews, along with two UMN colleagues, is an adviser to a company called VitalMedix, which has gotten financial support from
DARPA (the same military agency that funded the early suspended animation experiments of Mark Roth) and is currently working
with the Army and Navy drug development offices. 27 VitalMedix is looking to develop a way to trigger hibernation in humans. Squirrels are the perfect research subject: they’re
easy to find, you can keep them anywhere and they’ll eat anything. The Minnesota group feeds their squirrels pet food, Purina
rat chow. They’re also easy to work with, at least compared to some research subjects. “We don’t do bears, because then you
might have an experimental subject that would eat you,” says Andrews.
The study of hibernation in a way completes a circle for Andrews. As a graduate student at Central Michigan University in
the late 1970s, he got his start by studying how the heart could function at low body temperatures. As part of that research,
he got interested in molecular biology, especially how genes effectively turn on and off.
The genetic basis of hibernation was laid out in a 1998 paper, which identified genes that were triggered by a certain level
of fat in the squirrel’s body. Since then, says Andrews, “We haven’t found a single gene in the ground squirrel sequence that
isn’t in a person.”
Having the genes isn’t the whole story, of course. Otherwise we’d all pack it in after Thanksgiving dinner and wake up around
Easter. As we’ve seen in many fields of science and medicine, just as important as the genetic sequence are the triggers that
“turn on” the relevant genes. The Minnesota team also knew that it would be unrealistic to instigate gene therapy on someone
who just crashed their car or was bleeding out on the battlefield. They would need a shortcut. They would have to identify
the molecular substances that actually carry out the body’s order to enter survival mode.
“In 2002, DARPA contacted us about taking this approach to come up with ways to help the wounded soldier,” explains Andrews.
“If a soldier suffers profound blood loss, we’d come up with a cocktail of ingredients that would essentially buy time for
the injured soldier—more than just the minutes that CPR could buy or even the hours provided by hypothermia. DARPA was looking
for more time than ever before, for the injured from an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Afghanistan to the
car accident victim in Minnesota.” In essence, they were looking for near-instant hibernation.
What VitalMedix came up with is a drug called Tamiasyn. It includes two vital components: an antioxidant to try and slow the
damaging chain reaction that occurs when oxygen is removed from cells and an alternate energy source for these oxygen-deprived
cells, so they won’t die. Finding the alternative fuel was an especially tough challenge, but Andrews found an interesting
answer. He had noticed hibernating animals have high levels of ketone bodies, which are by-products that naturally occur when
the body breaks down fatty acids during digestion. During hibernation, when digestion is unfolding in super–slow motion or
not taking place at all, ketone bodies provide an additional source of fuel. 28 All of a sudden, suspended animation doesn’t sound like a science
that Goldy Gopher—mascot of the UMN sports teams—actually has the exact physical characteristics of a thirteen-lined ground
squirrel and that Lawrence Welk bought his first accordion by saving up bounty money, a dollar at a time, from hunting ground
squirrels and turning their skins in to state hunting officials. Ground squirrels used to be considered quite a pest in Minnesota—they
still are by many people—but they’ve also become the focus of some heavy-duty research.
Andrews, along with two UMN colleagues, is an adviser to a company called VitalMedix, which has gotten financial support from
DARPA (the same military agency that funded the early suspended animation experiments of Mark Roth) and is currently working
with the Army and Navy drug development offices. 27 VitalMedix is looking to develop a way to trigger hibernation in humans. Squirrels are the perfect research subject: they’re
easy to find, you can keep them anywhere and they’ll eat anything. The Minnesota group feeds their squirrels pet food, Purina
rat chow. They’re also easy to work with, at least compared to some research subjects. “We don’t do bears, because then you
might have an experimental subject that would eat you,” says Andrews.
The study of hibernation in a way completes a circle for Andrews. As a graduate student at Central Michigan University in
the late 1970s, he got his start by studying how the heart could function at low body temperatures. As part of that research,
he got interested in molecular biology, especially how genes effectively turn on and off.
The genetic basis of hibernation was laid out in a 1998 paper, which identified genes that were triggered by a certain level
of fat in the squirrel’s body. Since then, says Andrews, “We haven’t found a single gene in the ground squirrel sequence that
isn’t in a person.”
Having the genes isn’t the whole story, of course. Otherwise we’d all pack it in after Thanksgiving dinner and wake up around
Easter. As we’ve seen in many fields of science and medicine, just as important as the genetic sequence are the triggers that
“turn on” the relevant genes. The Minnesota team also knew that it would be unrealistic to instigate gene therapy on someone
who just crashed their car or was bleeding out on the battlefield. They would need a shortcut. They would have to identify
the molecular substances that actually carry out the body’s order to enter survival mode.
“In 2002, DARPA contacted us about taking this approach to come up with ways to help the wounded soldier,” explains Andrews.
“If a soldier suffers profound blood loss, we’d come up with a cocktail of ingredients that would essentially buy time for
the injured soldier—more than just the minutes that CPR could buy or even the hours provided by hypothermia. DARPA was looking
for more time than ever before, for the injured from an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Afghanistan to the
car accident victim in Minnesota.” In essence, they were looking for near-instant hibernation.
What VitalMedix came up with is a drug called Tamiasyn. It includes two vital components: an antioxidant to try and slow the
damaging chain reaction that occurs when oxygen is removed from cells and an alternate energy source for these oxygen-deprived
cells, so they won’t die. Finding the alternative fuel was an especially tough challenge, but Andrews found an interesting
answer. He had noticed hibernating animals have high levels of ketone bodies, which are by-products that naturally occur when
the body breaks down fatty acids during digestion. During hibernation, when digestion is unfolding in super–slow motion or
not taking place at all, ketone bodies provide an additional source of fuel. 28 All of a sudden, suspended animation doesn’t sound like a science
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