The brain-in-a-bucket drug lab is here

Bexorg has found a way to make drug testing sound like a deleted scene from RoboCop: remove a dead person's brain, hook it to a machine, and see what experimental drugs do.

Bexorg, a New Haven biotech startup, is using donated postmortem human brains to test experimental drugs. Its BrainEx system perfuses the intact brain with artificial fluids, keeping molecular and cellular functions active long enough for researchers to see how therapies behave in real human tissue.  

The company is extracting human brains just hours after their owners died and then hooking them up to specialized life support machines, Science reports. While the masses of pink mush no longer host electrical activity, most of their key functions remain intact, allowing scientists to test experimental drugs, such as potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease, like never before.

You'd hope that the disembodied cerebrums are most assuredly dead. But according to the reporting, an extracted brain hooked up to one of Bexorg's proprietary life support machines, BrainEX, "hovers between life and death." There's no spark of consciousness, and yet the brains are kept running on an artificial lung, kidney oxygenate, blood, and other fluids.

Perhaps you can put this ambiguity down to the startup being deliberately enigmatic to provoke attention. Or maybe it's a reflection of how the distinction between life and death is uncomfortably blurry.Futurism

This is not supposed to be a brain in a jar having thoughts. Science reports that the bucketed brains lack the coordinated electrical activity associated with consciousness, and Futurism notes that the company uses safeguards, including anesthetics, to prevent activity that would make the whole thing even more uncomfortable than it already is.  

Bexorg says that whole human brains come with age, disease history, prior medications, vascular structure, and the blood-brain barrier, all of which are very relevant to the experiment. That could make them far more useful for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, and other central nervous system drug work.  

The vibe, however, is pure "we checked with six ethicists, and they said the bucket is fine."

Previously:
• A Silicon Valley startup wants to sell you a brain-reading beanie
• This is your brain on drug policy – remake of classic PSA with Rachael Lee Cook
• Your brain loves rewards—whether you like it or not