Ira Pastor, CEO of Bioquark, a Philadelphia-based biotechnology company, believes we will on day be able to “reset” the brain of patients declared brain-dead using a series of stem cell injections and nerve stimulations.
Until recently, death was medically defined as a loss of heart and lung function but as medical technology has advanced so has the qualifications. Now, since both heartbeat and breathing functions can be performed for a patient by machine, death is almost universally declared when there is a loss of activity in the brain stem. However, Pastor does think that this loss of brain function is as irreversible as we’ve come expect.
Initially, Bioquark was slated to start trials for the procedure last year in India but, due to strong opposition by the Indian Council of Medical Research, those studies were canceled. Nevertheless, Ira Pastor and his collaborator Himanshu Bansal, an orthopedic surgeon, remain undaunted and have announced a new series of test to happen soon in a nameless South American country.
Although they have not released the details of the revolutionary procedure, we can gather a general idea of their plan to reanimate the brain-dead from the papers regarding their original canceled trial.
Originally, the researchers wanted brain-dead subjects between the ages of 12 and 65. Ideally, the cause of the brain damage would be due to traumatic injury. Scientists would look at MRIs to determine eligibility, then brain cells would be harvested from the patient’s blood. After the stem cells are injected, the patients would get another injection, this time peptides, directly to the spinal column. The series of injections is followed by two weeks of nerve stimulation, specifically the median nerve, by lasers, which Bioquark thinks is the key to reversing brain death.
Bioquark has not clarified how it intends to obtain consent from technically dead patients but in spite of the controversy, this study is not alone. The work at Bioquark is part of a larger program concerning neuro-reanimation and regeneration called ReAnima.
Pastor, who also serves on the advisory board for the project, told the Daily Mail: “The mission of the ReAnima Project is to focus on clinical research in the state of brain death, or irreversible coma, in subjects who have recently met the Uniform Determination of Death Act criteria, but who are still on cardio-pulmonary or trophic support – a classification in many countries around the world known as a ‘living cadaver’.”
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