This Machine Broke Brain Science
In a Nutshell
Bexon, founded by Yale researchers Nenad Sestan and Zvonimir, operates the world's first intact human brain lab in New Haven, perfusing dead human brains with worm-derived artificial blood through a custom device to restore cellular and molecular functions for drug testing on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. This approach bypasses ethical barriers of live human experiments and translational failures from animal models, generating vast data on brain-drug interactions to accelerate safer, faster therapies. Despite early skepticism, the scrappy, cost-effective setup exploits the gradual brain cell death process post-mortem, enabling unprecedented research without consciousness or higher thinking.
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Story starts in New Haven, Connecticut, with a human brain delivered to startup Bexon. Croatian doctor Joseph Bukovich (Joe) prepares the brain for a machine to restore its molecular function. The brain won't be alive in a thinking or feeling sense but will perform biological functions.
Velimir Peršić, physician-scientist, CEO and co-founder of Bexon, world's first intact human brain lab. Physically impossible to conduct experiments in living human brains, so they use dead human brains to restore certain cells or molecular activity.
Joe connects the brain to the device by interfacing its vascular system (blood vessels) and pushes fluid throughout. He inserts connectors; each brain differs, some vessels need treatment to ensure fluid flow. Fluid provides oxygenation, nutrients, electrolytes, oxygen.
Anyone else have a brain perfusion device at all? As far as we know, no.
Doing anything with human brains is difficult. Usually use mice, then primates, then humans, but drugs often fail translation from animals to humans. Bexon solves translational issues from benchtop science to therapies.
Goal: study how brains interact with drugs to make better medicines faster for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Brains named after superheroes (e.g., Tony like Tony Stark). Device has artificial lungs, heart, kidney. Fake blood flows through. Inject drugs via syringes; big one on right injects compound testing drug against Parkinson's.
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