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Until recently, a lack of blood flow in the brain
was thought to guarantee instant, irreversible
death. But researchers reported in Nature in
April that this may not always be the case, after
they successfully resurrected the brains of pigs
four hours after the animals had died.
Scientists already knew it was possible to harvest
cells from brains after death and keep them alive
in petri dishes. “This indicated that cells in the
postmortem brain may still have the capacity to
be revived,” lead researcher and Yale School of
Medicine neuroscientist Nenad Sestan explained
during a press conference.
The scientists removed the decapitated pigs’
brains and connected about 30 of them to a system
of chambers, pumps and tubes. For six hours, the
system, which they call BrainEx, pumped a solution
of synthetic nutrients through the brains. The goal
was to mimic the role living organs in the body
normally play to sustain the brain.
It worked: The system successfully restored some
blood flow and cell activity to the deceased animals’
brains.
The researchers note the brains were never alert
or conscious. In addition to monitoring the electrical
activity of individual cells, the scientists monitored
the brains’ activity as a whole. The researchers
found no evidence for higher-order brain activity
or any indication the brains could perceive the
environment or experience sensations.
“This is not a living brain. But it is a cellularly
active brain,” Sestan said.
The researchers emphasized the goal of the
research was never to bring about consciousness.
In fact, they had steps in place to shut down the
experiment had they discovered certain types
of electrical signals that
can be associated with
consciousness. Instead, the
researchers hope the work
will lead to new ways to aid
recovery after trauma such as
heart attacks and strokes.
The researchers received
the heads of pigs that had
been slaughtered at a
Connecticut food-
processing plant. Because
the animals were bred and
butchered as part of the
food industry, they weren’t
killed solely for research, the
authors say.Brains
Brought Back
to Life
13 BY RONI DENGLER
The next major milestone scheduled
was the in-flight abort test, another
uncrewed mission meant to test the reli-
ability of the abort system that would save
the crew in case of any mishap during
launch. The plan was to use the same cap-
sule from the Demo-1 flight. But SpaceX
never got the chance.
On April 20, the company ran what was
supposed to be a routine test, firing certain
rockets with the capsule anchored firmly
to ground. Some 100 milliseconds before
the engines fired, a leak of oxidizer into a
pressurized helium line caused an explo-
sion that completely destroyed the capsule.
SpaceX spent the rest of spring and
early summer figuring out what had gone
wrong and scrambling to prep a replace-
ment capsule. While the problem is now
solved, and the replacement capsule
should be ready by the end of the year, the
in-flight abort test has yet to happen as
of press time. The Demo-2 mission, the
first to fly with actual humans on board,
was set to launch no earlier than Nov. 15,
but it’s doubtful that SpaceX will carry
passengers before 2020.A new method restored
some cellular function to pig
brains (top) four hours after
death. An untreated brain
(middle) is dark compared
with a treated brain (above),
which shows significant
neural (in green) and other
electrical activity.