Biotech CEO found dead inside sensory deprivation tank

An eccentric biotech pioneer who once injected himself
with an unapproved herpes treatment has been found dead inside a
flotation tank.

The body of Aaron Traywick, CEO of Ascendance
Biomedical, was discovered by employees at a Washington DC spa on
Sunday night. Police said there was no evidence of foul
play.

Ascendance staff told VICE News that the 28-year-old entrepreneur had
been inside a sensory deprivation tank at the the time of his
death. He had not been in touch with colleagues for around a
month prior to his death, following “disagreements over the
company’s direction and philosophical differences over how to best
distribute its creations”.

Traywick was a controversial figure in the
rapidly developing world of biomedical technology.

His startup pioneered the concept of
“biohacking” – conducting medical research and developing new
treatments outside the conventional domain of pharmaceutical
companies and federal regulators.

The firm attracted attention for its
unconventional methods of promoting their experimental
therapies.

In one notorious incident, “Traywick removed his
trousers in front of an audience at a biohacking convention in
Texas and injected his own thigh with a gene therapy intended to
treat herpes”, says Science Alert.

Another Ascendance employee, Tristan Roberts,
“injected himself with an experimental HIV treatment also supplied
by the company, and streamed it all on Facebook Live”, Buzzfeed reports.

“While many in the biohacking scene disagreed
with his methods, none of them doubted his intentions,” Roberts
said in a statement following the news of Traywick’s
death.

“He sought nothing short of a revolution in
biomedicine; the democratisation of science and the opening of the
flood gates for global healing.”