Science Corporation, the brain-computer interface startup founded in 2021 by former Neuralink president Max Hodak, is launching a new division of the company with the goal of extending the life of human organs. And no, not brains.
Alameda, California-based Science is aiming to improve on current perfusion systems that continuously circulate blood through vital organs when they can no longer function on their own. The technology is used to preserve organs for transplant and as a life-support measure for patients when the heart and lungs stop working, but it’s clunky and costly. Science wants to make a smaller, more portable system that could provide long-term support.
Until now, Science’s focus has been on neural interfaces and vision restoration. The company is working on a “biohybrid” interface that uses living neurons instead of wires to connect to the brain. More immediately, it’s looking to commercialize its retinal implant, which successfully restored some vision in patients with advanced macular degeneration, allowing them to read letters, numbers, and words. Science acquired the implant in 2024 from French startup Pixium Vision, which was facing bankruptcy, and has leapfrogged ahead of Elon Musk’s Neuralink to develop an implant for vision loss.
“In some sense, they’re both longevity technologies, and that is the goal of both the neural interfaces and this,” Hodak says of organ perfusion.
Hodak cofounded Neuralink along with Musk and others in 2016 but left in 2021 to start Science and serve as its CEO. Since its founding, Science has raised around $290 million, according to the venture capital database Pitchbook.
Hodak was inspired to work on organ preservation after reading about the case of a 17-year-old boy in Boston whose lungs had failed due to cystic fibrosis. He was being sustained by a type of perfusion called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, while awaiting a transplant. But after two months on the wait list, he developed a complication that made him no longer eligible for a transplant. His doctors and parents faced the ethical dilemma of keeping him alive on ECMO, which is meant to serve as a short-term bridge. Eventually, the machine’s oxygenator began to fail and doctors chose not to replace it. Shortly after, the boy lost consciousness and died.
Used during the Covid-19 pandemic for patients whose lungs had failed, ECMO machines are expensive and highly resource-intensive. They cost thousands of dollars per day to run, and patients are tethered to them in the hospital. Consisting of a large circuit of tubes that must be wheeled around on a bedside cart, they require constant monitoring and frequent manual adjustments. Because of their high cost, not every hospital has them.