The BenefitsPRO weekly roundup: May 27, 2016

Photo: Getty Images

Welcome to BenefitsPRO weekly roundup! Catch up with some of this week’s headlines that we didn’t cover. 

My personal favorite news bit this week: Ira Pastor, chief executive of Bioquark, a biotech company focused on cellular reprogramming for human cell therapy and tissue regeneration, wants to start the zombie apocalypse. (Well, not really, but if you’re like me and zombies are often your chosen conversation starter, keep reading.) Pastor’s mission — reanimating brain dead patients — does sound like the beginning of a Frankenstein-esque plot that could take a turn for the worst, but his intent is to change the misconception that brain death is the point of no return. It’s true, the mind is a mystery, and many family members of patients, like those of Jahi McMath, agree that irreversible comas don’t necessarily signify death. Pastor’s proposed study of 20 patients has stirred worries on almost every level, but he says if Bioquark’s radical treatment works, the applications can go beyond waking the “dead.”