Prometheus Project

The Prometheus Project was:

...a mid-1990s fund raising effort initiated by cryonicist Paul Wakfer to start a brain vitrification research project at a rate of $1 million per year for 10 years with the goal of achieving reversible suspended animation of the human brain. The Project critically depended on luring a certain vitrification expert who would prefer to remain nameless from his then-employer to work on this project instead. In 1998 Paul and others were sucessful in luring said cryobiologist to leave his employer and work for a startup company called Cryova with the intention perfecting commercial preservation of human ova, and doing brain cryopreservation research on the side. Cryova failed almost immediately when investors backed out after CNN broke a story claiming successful cryopreservation of human egg cells by another institution. (Ironically this was only one of several "breakthroughs" in ova preservation reported by the media in the last decade, none of which really work with a decent success rate.)