For centuries, scientists, psychologists, philosophers, and ethicists alike have been fascinated by the concept of life after death and sought to better understand what happens to human tissues, composed of an ever-changing flux of trillions of cells, after human death. Today, a new generation of thought leaders remain captivated and want to better understand the biological metamorphosis and are asking whether certain cells live on after human death.

Study of cell death in cancer has helped inform investigators about how cells proliferate and die as well as how they can be disguised to prevent further disease, and they continue to offer more clues to the nature of cells.

In recent years, the study, “Tracing the dynamics of gene transcripts after organismal death,” published in Open Biology in 2017, investigators found unique dynamics of specific genes which were upregulated and only shut off nearly 96 hours after death in zebra fish and mice. They surmised through “natural selection and self-organizing processes,” they underwent a “thermodynamically-driven process of spontaneous disintegration through complex pathways,” which consisted of an increase of specific gene transcripts and putative feedback loops.

In 2021, investigators from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) found gene expression in fresh brain tissue to increase after death in inflammatory cells called glial cells. Results of their study were published in Scientific Reports and showed these “zombie genes” grew arm-like appendages for several hours after clinical death and would clean up after neurological events such as stroke or oxygen deprivation.

Scientists now know which cells and genes remain stable, which disintegrate, and which proliferate. Yet, there remains unanswered questions. Is there an intrinsic urge for survival at the human body level or at the individual cellular level? Is there life after the heart and brain stop? The Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at Indiana University seeks answers.