New! Sign up for our email newsletter on Substack.

Nature honors Yale’s Sestan for reviving pigs’ brain function after death

Yale’s Nenad Sestan M.D., Ph.D., the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience, has been named as one of Nature’s 10 scientists who made a difference in 2019, the journal announced Dec. 17.

The journal recognized the work of Sestan and his team for “challenging thinking of the border between life and death by reviving the brains of pigs which had died hours earlier.”

Sestan and Zvonimir Vrselja (left) and Stefano Daniele (right), the two co-first authors of the paper highlighted by Nature
Sestan and Zvonimir Vrselja (left) and Stefano Daniele (right), the two co-first authors of the paper highlighted by Nature

The researchers reported  April 17 in the journal Nature that they had restored circulation and cellular function in severed heads of pigs obtained from a local meatpacking plant. However, they also stressed that the brains lacked any recognizable global electrical signals associated with normal brain function.

Sestan, who earned a Ph.D. in 1999 from Yale School of Medicine, is also professor of comparative medicine, of genetics and of psychiatry.

related


Did this article help you?

If you found this piece useful, please consider supporting our work with a small, one-time or monthly donation. Your contribution enables us to continue bringing you accurate, thought-provoking science and medical news that you can trust. Independent reporting takes time, effort, and resources, and your support makes it possible for us to keep exploring the stories that matter to you. Together, we can ensure that important discoveries and developments reach the people who need them most.