The severed pig heads came from a local slaughterhouse. It is usually discarded, but Zvonimir FuseliaA neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine and colleagues have different ideas. Four hours after this particular animal was decapitated, they removed its brain from its skull. They then connected the deceased’s brain’s vasculature to tubes, pumped a special mixture of preservatives into his blood vessels, and turned on the perfusion machine.
At that time Something incredible happened. The leather changes from gray to pink. Brain cells start producing proteins. Neurons shivered back to life, showing signs of metabolic activity indistinguishable from living cells. Basic cellular functions, activities that would have been irreversibly stopped when blood flow ceased, were restored. The pig’s brain isn’t alive, exactly—but it’s certainly not dead.
Now, the team has used the technique on the human brain for the first time.
“We’re trying to be transparent and very careful because that brings a lot of value,” Vrselja said. In a sense, resurrecting dead human brains would bring huge medical benefits. Researchers can improve treatments by testing drugs on the human brain, where the cells are active. Similar techniques have been used to better preserve other human organs for transplantation. In perhaps the most immediately useful application, the resuscitation technology involved improves the likelihood of saving people near death.
The problem is that this is, to put it mildly, a morally complex undertaking. and pass…
