The US government is funding “completely crazy” brain transplant research with the goal of “defeating” death.
Geneticist Dr. Jean Hébert has received a $110 million NIH grant to develop a surgery to replace damaged or aging brain cells with tissue from human embryos.
The procedure involves repairing the diseased brain tissue using “neural” stem cells grown in the laboratory. This method has already shown promising results in mice.
A researcher has proposed a radical idea to cheat death that some scientists are calling “completely crazy.”
Stem cells are “empty, shape-shifting” cells that can transform into cells from any other part of the body.
They are present in large numbers in human embryos as a fertilized egg grows and specializes into a complex human being – and their use is at the core of this novel approach.
“You don’t have to understand aging,” says Mark Hamalainen, Co-founder of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship, said: “That’s why Jean’s work is interesting.”
However, other experts in the field believe that the procedure is too severe for general use and in the general public it is referred to as “devilish.’ (“These are the ghouls in charge of ‘the science,'” as one commenter posted online.)
Dr. Hébert’s initiative, more formally described as “functional replacement of brain tissue,” showed early signs of success in mice last year.
The results of that trial led the government to approve grants this month for primate testing, ahead of human trials that could one day begin.
Laboratory mice with brain lesions underwent the procedure in which scientists injected mouse stem cells into their aging brains, according to the study published in the journal Bioengineering.
The stem cells were grown through cell culture. This involves isolating cells from an embryo and placing them in a Petri dish with nutrients such as vitamins, amino acids, glucose and salts.
The team carefully layered a mixture of the cells grown in the lab into a protein-based support gel from Corning, called Matrigel Matrix, which is obtained from cell and tissue components and promotes cell growth.
Dr. Hébert’s preliminary experiments in mice showed that these transplanted donor brain cells became “electrophysiologically active,” activating and communicating with the brain of their host mouse, and even responding to “visual stimuli” within “one month after transplantation.”
“Using our paradigm, we found that neurons differentiate and project to appropriate targets in the host brain,” Dr. Hébert and his team wrote in the study.
In other words, the young cells rapidly developed into specialized cells ready to fulfill their new role in the host brain.
“In addition, the neurons obtained from the transplants were spontaneously active,” they added, “and integrated (…) into functional networks” in the brain without requiring any additional work on the part of the surgeons.
As electrode studies on mice in later tests showed, these cells also responded to sensory input.
Dr. Hébert’s successes caught the attention of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this year and led to a new, multi-million dollar program.
Modeled after the Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA, the new US Advanced Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) was created by President Joe Biden in 2022 to play a similarly forward-looking role within the NIH.
The new brain rejuvenation surgery complements ARPA-H’s efforts to transplant eyes into the blind, predict the genetic evolution of cancer cells and develop radically new indoor air filters.
Dr. Hébert described the project as part of his life goal to achieve immortality.
“I was a weird kid and when I found out that we all fall apart and die, I thought, ‘Why is this okay for everyone?'” the researcher explained.
The ARPA-H project will expand geneticist Dr. Jean Hébert’s testing of his surgical technique from previous successful transplants in mice to primates and other animals. Above, microscopic “immunofluorescence images” show the successful layers of new brain cells in mice
“That has pretty much determined everything I do,” said Dr. Hébert. “I simply prefer life to this slow degradation into nothingness that biology has planned for all of us.”
The geneticist will give up his position in the Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and take up his high-tech post at ARPA-H.
As part of the ARPA-H project, Dr. Hébert’s tests of this surgical technique, based on previous successful transplants in mice, will be extended to other animals, including primates, the agency said.
However, despite these promising successes, some scientists in the field expressed doubts about the practicality and long-term viability of the operation.
“On the surface, this sounds completely crazy,” Matthew Scholz, CEO of aging research company Oisín Biotechnologies, told MIT Technology Review, “but I was surprised at how well he was able to make the case for it.”
However, Scholz does not expect this surgical procedure to be used across the board or to usher in a new era of human immortality.
“A new brain will not be a particularly popular object,” said Scholz. “The surgical procedure will be very serious, no matter how you look at it.”
Others believe that the procedure represents a possible cure for hereditary cognitive problems.
“If it works, you can forget about aging,” said physician and biotech entrepreneur Dr. Justin Rebo. “It would be useful for all kinds of neurodegenerative diseases.”
