An AI agent just performed brain surgery. Here's how it went

An AI Agent Injected Drugs Into a Live Mouse’s Brain

A biotech startup let an agent choose a gene therapy and successfully inject the treatment, offering a startling glimpse of the future of research labs.

An AI agent just performed brain surgery. Here's how it went

An AI agent guided a needle into a mouse's brain during an epilepsy experiment, while human experts supervised critical stages of the procedure.

AI Agent Injects Drugs into the Brains of Living Mice in Scientific Experiment

Researchers at the Frontier Research Institute asked an AI agent to select and carry out a treatment for a mouse from 19 options in a spreadsheet. After a veterinarian performed a craniotomy, the agent chose the treatment and brain region, calculated injection coordinates, and controlled a robotic arm and needle, including the injection volume and [...]

An AI Agent Picked a Gene Therapy and Guided the Needle Into a Mouse's Brain

Exin Therapeutics, a Y Combinator-backed startup, had its AI agent choose a GABA-boosting gene therapy from 19 candidates and guide the injection into a mouse's lateral entorhinal cortex, while Claude Opus 5.5 initially refused the task outright.

Exin CEO Says Three AI Models Directed Gene Therapy Injections in Mice

The models received 19 candidate vectors and chose different brain regions. Seizure outcomes have not been reported.