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Researchers did not bring dead pigs back to life. In a 2019 experiment, BrainEx restored or maintained selected circulation, metabolic, molecular and cellular functions in isolated pig brains after death—but the study reported no global electrical activity across the brain and did not demonstrate consciousness or subjective experience.
What did the BrainEx experiment do?
In the 2019 study, researchers removed intact pig brains and connected their blood vessels to BrainEx, an extracorporeal system that delivered a pulsing, specially formulated perfusate. The fluid was acellular and hemoglobin-based, and the isolated brains were perfused under controlled, near-normal-temperature laboratory conditions.
The Nature paper reported that the team maintained microcirculation and selected molecular and cellular functions for up to four hours postmortem. That figure describes the reported postmortem interval for these outcomes; it is not evidence that a brain functioned normally for four hours or that an animal was revived.
What the team observed
- Preserved tissue structure and reduced cell death compared with the study’s control conditions.
- Restored vascular responses and glial inflammatory responses.
- Active cerebral metabolism and spontaneous synaptic activity.
- No global electrocorticographic activity, according to the paper.
These are different kinds of biological measurements. Evidence of circulation, metabolism or activity in individual cells does not by itself establish coordinated brain function, awareness or the return of an organism to life.
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Does “alive” mean the brains were conscious?
No. The word “alive” can blur the distinction between cellular processes and the integrated activity associated with a functioning, conscious brain. BrainEx demonstrated selected functions in isolated tissue; its authors reported no global electrocorticographic activity. The experiment therefore did not show that the brains were conscious, had subjective experiences or had “woken up.”
Yale’s 2019 account described the work as restoring circulation and certain cellular functions in a postmortem pig brain. Senior author Nenad Sestan said the intact brain of a large mammal retains a previously underappreciated capacity to restore circulation and certain molecular and cellular activities multiple hours after circulatory arrest. That is a claim about biological capacity, not a claim that a dead animal can be brought back.
How was OrganEx different from BrainEx?
OrganEx was a later, related experiment, but it was not the isolated-brain study in the headline. It adapted perfusion research to pigs after cardiac arrest, treating the whole body rather than a brain removed from the body. The studies also used different timing and measured different outcomes.
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| Feature | BrainEx | OrganEx |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Isolated pig brains; Nature, 2019. | Whole pigs after cardiac arrest; Nature, 2022. |
| Timing reported | Selected outcomes maintained for up to four hours postmortem, as reported in the 2019 Nature paper. | Perfusion began after one hour of warm ischemia, as reported in the 2022 Nature paper. Yale’s 2022 account describes a six-hour experiment. |
| Reported findings | Microcirculation and selected molecular and cellular functions, including cerebral metabolism and spontaneous synaptic activity; the paper reported no global electrocorticographic activity. | Selected circulation, tissue integrity and cellular or molecular processes in several vital organs. Yale reported heart electrical activity and spontaneous head and neck muscle movements, but no organized brain electrical activity indicating consciousness. |
| What the result establishes | Selected functions in isolated postmortem brain tissue under laboratory conditions. | Selected processes in multiple organs during a limited animal experiment—not clinical resuscitation or a successful transplant. |
The OrganEx motor findings require care in interpretation: Yale said the spontaneous movements needed further study. They are not evidence of consciousness. The OrganEx pigs remained anesthetized during the six-hour experiment described by Yale.
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The work may help scientists study how large-mammal brain tissue responds to interrupted circulation and how cellular injury develops. OrganEx also points to questions about preserving tissue and studying ischemic injury in other organs. Those are potential research directions, not demonstrated human treatments.
The cited studies do not establish that either system can revive a person, restore a human brain, or produce organs suitable for transplantation. Nor do they establish a consensus about independent replication of BrainEx or what later research has found; the cited accounts are not enough to settle those questions.
What ethical oversight and disclosures were reported?
Yale said the OrganEx protocols were approved by its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and guided by an external advisory and ethics committee. The investigators called for careful ethical oversight of future studies, particularly those involving brain perfusion. Yale bioethics director Stephen Latham said that future work of this kind needs careful oversight.
The 2022 OrganEx paper disclosed that the findings were shared with Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research, which filed a patent. It also said protocols, methods, perfusate formulations and components remained freely available for academic and nonprofit research. Hemopure was provided under a material transfer agreement; the paper stated that the company did not influence study design or interpretation and that the authors had no financial stake or compensation from the company.
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