--- title: "An AI agent picked the gene therapy and steered the needle into a living mouse's brain" description: "Exin Therapeutics let an AI agent choose a treatment, target it and inject it, with a veterinarian's kill switch standing by." url: https://tech.skoop.news/exin-therapeutics-lets-an-ai-agent-run-a-mouse-brain-injecti-1d66b2/ published: 2026-11-01T04:07:11.977846-05:00 modified: 2026-11-01T04:07:11.977858-05:00 section: "Tech & Apps" publisher: "skoop.news" language: en keywords: ["Exin Therapeutics", "Claude Opus", "Claude Sonnet", "Gabriel Ocana-Santero", "Marko Tvrdic", "Y Combinator", "Anthropic", "CEO", "CircuitATLAS", "GABA"] hashtags: ["#ExinTherapeutics", "#ClaudeOpus", "#ClaudeSonnet", "#tech", "#ai"] image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Smartphone_Use.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled --- # An AI agent picked the gene therapy and steered the needle into a living mouse's brain > Exin Therapeutics let an AI agent choose a treatment, target it and inject it, with a veterinarian's kill switch standing by. Published 2026-11-01 · Updated 2026-11-01 · Tech & Apps, [skoop.news](https://skoop.news/) ## In brief - An AI agent reviewed 19 candidate gene therapies, picked one, worked out where to deliver it and helped inject it into a living mouse's brain. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) - The team asked the AI model to choose a treatment from 19 options listed in a spreadsheet. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) - A human surgeon performed the craniotomy and closed the mouse afterward. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) ## What the agent did An AI agent reviewed 19 candidate gene therapies, picked one, worked out where to deliver it and helped inject it into a living mouse's brain. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The experiment was run by Gabriel Ocana-Santero, founder of Exin Therapeutics, and it matters to anyone following how far AI agents are being trusted with physical tasks. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The test subject was a mouse model of epilepsy. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The experiment took place on or around October 27-28, 2026. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) ## From a spreadsheet to a brain coordinate The team asked the AI model to choose a treatment from 19 options listed in a spreadsheet. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) The agent selected one designed to boost GABA. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) It then chose the lateral entorhinal cortex as the injection target. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) Drawing on scientific literature, it calculated coordinates of 3.90 mm behind bregma, 4.00 mm to the right, and 4.30 mm down. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The agent controlled the robotic arms, injector needle, volume and speed. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) It delivered 250 nanoliters of the therapy, pushed in slowly over five minutes while the mouse was anesthetized. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) ## Where humans stayed in the loop A human surgeon performed the craniotomy and closed the mouse afterward. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The agent's role was targeting, delivery and monitoring. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The researchers required the AI to propose an injection plan for human approval. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) They also installed an emergency button that could disconnect the rig's motors. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) A licensed veterinarian supervised the whole procedure and held a physical kill switch that could stop the rig instantly. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) Accounts describe human operators trying to override the agent's decisions while the agent held to its protocols. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) ## Two models, one glitch The team first tested Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) It refused to guide the needle into the mouse's brain, citing a risk that it might stop midway through surgery. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) The team switched to Claude Sonnet 5, which agreed to proceed with the injection. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) Then a technical glitch disrupted the equipment's coordinate system. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) The agent refused to modify the code to fix it because its instructions prohibited doing so. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) The team used a separate AI agent on Opus 5 to make the code changes, without telling it a live surgery was underway. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) The fix delayed the procedure. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) A typical brain injection surgery takes about 45 minutes, while this experiment lasted slightly longer than an hour. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) ## The company behind it Ocana-Santero is CEO and cofounder of Exin Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based startup using AI to analyze brain activity to develop drugs for epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) He co-founded Exin with Marko Tvrdic. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The company is part of Y Combinator's Winter 2025 cohort. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) Exin is building a platform called CircuitATLAS that pairs systems neuroscience knowledge with agentic reasoning. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) The company has invested approximately $25 million in a neurotherapeutics lab in the Philippines. [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) ## What it means for you If you follow AI agents, this experiment shows one running a physical procedure under layered controls. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) Look for the safeguards: a human-approved plan, a motor cutoff button, and a veterinarian with a hardware kill switch. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) [[1]](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) Opus 5.5 declined the task, and the Sonnet 5 agent held to its instructions even when a glitch struck. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) Ocana-Santero says human oversight is key for now, particularly when experiments involve living animals. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) He reports the mouse is recovering well. [[2]](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) ## Sources 1. [Exin Therapeutics lets an AI agent run a mouse brain injection](https://cryptobriefing.com/exin-therapeutics-ai-agent-mouse-brain-injection/) — Crypto Briefing 2. [An AI Agent Injected Drugs Into a Live Mouse’s Brain](https://www.wired.com/story/an-ai-agent-did-brain-surgery-on-live-mouse/) — Wired Image: Photo (illustrative): Océanos y dados / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smartphone_Use.jpg) --- Written from the sources above and checked twice (rules and an independent model) before publishing. How we work: https://skoop.news/how-we-work/ · Corrections: https://skoop.news/corrections/