The possibility of performing a full brain transfer from one living individual to another -a brain transplant- has been the staple of science fiction and the pet dream of many a neurosurgeon. Yet it is considered a technical impossibility. Now, after developing the technology that powers head transplantation, Prof Canavero describes the technology behind a full brain transplant. BRAVE, the Brain Anastomosis Venture, aims at achieving the first brain transplant in history as a device to extend life.

"In 1970 American neurosurgeon Robert White and his team carried out the first full head transplant in living monkeys. However, the resulting chimera was left tetraplegic and died a few days later. Fifty years on, the technology to perform a human cephalosomatic anastomosis is finally available. In this groundbreaking book, the pioneers of this new medical frontier bring together an international team of scientists to reveal for the first time the entire body of animal and human research and experimentation that made this breakthrough possible. Readers - professionals, journalists, educated laypersons- will get unadulterated access to the published and unpublished body of evidence that has shocked the world since 2013. Only a deep appreciation of this technology can inform the ethical debate that keeps raging on since 2013. Above all, the possibility of extending life raises profound dilemmas. This book brings clarity to the current debate and provides the instruments to make an informed decision on the most sensitive of subjects: overcoming death"--

After providing basic background on transplantation, brain structure, and development, the book discusses Parkinson's disease, the use of transplants to influence localized brain functions, circuit reconstruction, and genetic engineering and other future technologies.

Distinguished medical researchers from around the world review novel neural reconstructive techniques that appear to be beneficial for Parkinson's disease and hold promise for treating Huntington's disease, pain, demyelinating diseases, and stroke. The contributors focus on those diseases for which clinical trials are either ongoing or likely to occur in the near future. Among the topics reviewed are results and rationale for some of the leading transplant programs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, the use of PET scanning for patient evaluation, autopsy studies of transplant recipients, transplant immunology, fetal tissue transplantation for Huntington's disease, cellular transplantation for the treatment of pain and stroke, and transplantation of myelinating cells. A full discussion of the important ethical issues surrounding the use of fetal tissue for transplantation purposes is also included.

Functional Neural Transplantation IV: Translation to Clinical Application, Volume 230 provides a survey of the current status of cell transplantation in the nervous system, with a focus on the conditions for achieving structural repair and functional recovery after brain damage or in neurodegenerative disease. As the fourth in a periodic series of updates at 5-7 year intervals, this volume highlights recent developments related to the application of advances in cellular and molecular science to an understanding of the fundamental principles of neuroplasticity and regeneration in the brain and spinal cord, also addressing the topic of the power of pluripotent stem cells to generate new sources of precisely specified neurons for utilization in brain repair. Selected chapters review the latest advances in translating the new technologies to a broader range of neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, spinal cord injury, glial and retinal disease and pain than had hitherto been considered possible, with the realization that the opportunities of off-the-shelf cell therapy may fast be approaching a plausible reality. Comprehensive set of critical reviews covering the field Presents state-of-the-art topics in science and translational medicine Written by international leaders in the field of neural transplantation

The dramatic race to transplant the first human heart spanned two years, three continents and five cities against a backdrop of searing tension, scientific brilliance, ethical controversy, racial strife and emotional turmoil. It culminated in a terrifying moment in the early hours of 3 December 1967 when, in a cramped operating theatre in a Cape Town hospital, Professor Chris Barnard stared into an empty cavity from which he had just removed a heart. He knew that he had only minutes left to make history and save the life of a 55-year-old man by filling the gaping hole in his chest with a heart which had just been beating inside a 25-year-old woman. Every Second Countsis the story of this gripping race to conquer the greatest of medical challenges. It also reveals the truth about the man at the centre of it all, whose turbulent life story was just as gripping. The kind of true story that would be dismissed as far-fetched if presented as fiction, it combines an utterly compelling portrait of cutting-edge science with raw human drama, and shows how the course of medicine itself was changed for ever.

The mesmerizing biography of a brilliant and eccentric surgeon and his quest to transplant the human soul. In the early days of the Cold War, a spirit of desperate scientific rivalry birthed a different kind of space race: not the race to outer space that we all know, but a race to master the inner space of the human body. While surgeons on either side of the Iron Curtain competed to become the first to transplant organs like the kidney and heart, a young American neurosurgeon had an even more ambitious thought: Why not transplant the brain? Dr. Robert White was a friend to two popes and a founder of the Vatican’s Commission on Bioethics. He developed lifesaving neurosurgical techniques still used in hospitals today and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. But like Dr. Jekyll before him, Dr. White had another identity. In his lab, he was waging a battle against the limits of science, and against mortality itself—working to perfect a surgery that would allow the soul to live on after the human body had died. Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher follows his decades-long quest into tangled matters of science, global politics, and faith, revealing the complex (and often murky) ethics of experimentation and remarkable innovations that today save patients from certain death. It’s an enthralling tale that offers a window into our greatest fears and our greatest hopes—and the long, strange journey from science fiction to science fact.