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A medical startup says it is using disembodied human brains in new drug development research targeting neurodegenerative diseases, a practice that may draw unsettling comparisons to the science fiction trope of a living brain in a jar.
The brains of deceased donors are reportedly being used in the work by Bexorg, a Connecticut-based medical startup, building on successful attempts to restore limited function in pig brains.
A system dubbed BrainEx, a targeted life-support system for brains, is at the core of Bexorg’s work, restoring metabolic functions in donated organs and enabling extremely invasive research, albeit in a manner that has raised some ethical concerns.
In their new process, Bexorg supplies recently deceased human brains with a blood substitute and other fluids that fuel metabolic processes, while anesthesia deadens their electrical activity. The artificially life-sustaining liquids, data, and drugs flow through four ports sutured into each brain, while apparatus mimicking the lungs and kidneys inject oxygen and remove waste.
thedebrief.org
The brains of deceased donors are reportedly being used in the work by Bexorg, a Connecticut-based medical startup, building on successful attempts to restore limited function in pig brains.
A system dubbed BrainEx, a targeted life-support system for brains, is at the core of Bexorg’s work, restoring metabolic functions in donated organs and enabling extremely invasive research, albeit in a manner that has raised some ethical concerns.
In their new process, Bexorg supplies recently deceased human brains with a blood substitute and other fluids that fuel metabolic processes, while anesthesia deadens their electrical activity. The artificially life-sustaining liquids, data, and drugs flow through four ports sutured into each brain, while apparatus mimicking the lungs and kidneys inject oxygen and remove waste.
This Startup is Reviving Human Brains to Explore New Treatments for Neurodegenerative Disease
Bexorg, a Connecticut medical startup, is using disembodied human brains in research targeting neurodegenerative diseases.


