---
title: "Cerebrum DAO"
url: "https://caper.network/wiki/desci/ecosystem/cerebrum-dao"
updated: 2026-09-02
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Cerebrum DAO

| Type | BioDAO — neuroscience / brain-health research funding |
| --- | --- |
| Focus | Extending healthy brain lifespan; first target Alzheimer's disease and neurodegeneration |
| Founder | Brian Magierski (also founder of 21 Impact Labs, CEO of Xponetiq) |
| Token | NEURON (ERC-20, Ethereum) — governance + IP-NFT access |
| Launched | NEURON Dutch auction on the [Bio Protocol](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/bio-xyz) launchpad, deadline 30 April 2024 |
| Portfolio | ~$1.3M committed across 7 projects (IP-NFT, IP-license and equity deals) |
| IP framework | [Molecule](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/molecule) IPNFT protocol |
| Website | [cerebrumdao.com](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/) |

**Cerebrum DAO** is a [Bio Protocol](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/bio-xyz) BioDAO that, in its own words, is "a community-powered network organization to source, fund, and translate research that accelerates solutions to extend healthy brain lifespan" ([cerebrumdao.com/about](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/about)). Its first focus area is **Alzheimer's disease** — a condition it notes affects some 6.7 million Americans, with cases projected to rise sharply by 2050 ([Bio Protocol](https://www.bio.xyz/blog-posts/bringing-neuroscience-onchain-with-cerebrum-dao)). Founder **Brian Magierski** has said the effort was motivated by his daughter's Down syndrome diagnosis, which carries a near-certain lifetime risk of Alzheimer's dementia.

Cerebrum follows the [VitaDAO](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/vitadao) model pioneered across the Bio Protocol pipeline: a freely-tradeable governance token funds early-stage translational research, and the resulting intellectual property is tokenized on-chain as an [IP-NFT](/wiki/desci/ip-nfts) owned by the community rather than a single lab or fund.

## What Cerebrum DAO funds

Cerebrum treats neurodegeneration as tightly coupled to biological aging, and concentrates on the upstream drivers of brain decline: **neuro-inflammation, metabolic stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and vascular changes** — with particular attention to blood-brain-barrier dysfunction ([cerebrumdao.com](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/)). Researchers apply for funding directly, with a stated 6–8 week response window depending on the pipeline ([cerebrumdao.com/researchers](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/researchers)).

When the DAO backs a project, the IP is tokenized "using the IPNFT protocol, ensuring equitable distribution of license and governance rights," and licensing proceeds are split between the researchers and the DAO ([cerebrumdao.com/about](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/about)). This is the same [Molecule](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/molecule)-built mechanism used by [HairDAO](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/hairdao) and [VitaDAO](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/vitadao) — funding research _before_ a company exists and giving the community an on-chain claim on its upside.

## The IP-NFT portfolio

As of mid-2026 Cerebrum reports roughly **$1.3 million committed across seven projects** ([cerebrumdao.com/projects](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/projects)):

| Project | What it is | Instrument | Allocated |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **[Fission Bio](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/projects/fission-bio)** | Protein–protein interaction inhibitor severing the link between chronic inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction | IP-Token | $400,000 |
| **[Percepta®](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/projects/percepta-brain)** | Patent-protected brain-health supplement (PTI-00703® cat's claw + MemorTea® oolong extract); tokenized as [IP-NFT #129](https://etherscan.io/nft/0xcaD88677CA87a7815728C72D74B4ff4982d54Fc1/129) | IP Portfolio License | $400,000 |
| **[Project Transfidelity](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/projects/project-transfidelity)** | Enhancing protein-translation fidelity to combat neurodegeneration (Dr Dimitri Scherbakov, University of Zurich) | IP-Token | $254,000 |
| **Arctic Therapeutics (AT-001)** | Oral NAC-amide (NACA) disrupting amyloid plaques; Phase IIa data in HCCAA patients (Dr Hakon Hakonarson) | Equity | €75,000 |
| **SK-Channels** | Small-molecule modulator for tremors and ataxia | IP License | $60,000 |
| **Neuron-Gale** | Galectin-3 inhibitors for neuro-inflammation (Dr Maryna Polyakova) | — | $50,000 |
| **Xponetiq** | Mobile app for brain-healthy habits | Product | $50,000 |

Cerebrum describes the Percepta deal as "a world's first tokenization of a robust patent portfolio and a world's first tokenized crowdsale for a clinical evidence study" ([cerebrumdao.com](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/projects/percepta-brain)) — an illustration of how a BioDAO can pool retail capital behind a specific clinical study rather than a whole company.

## NEURON token & governance

Cerebrum raised its treasury through a **Dutch auction of the NEURON token** on the [Bio Protocol](/wiki/desci/ecosystem/bio-xyz) launchpad, with a deadline of 3pm CET on 30 April 2024; every participant paid the same clearing price and lower bidders were refunded, with US persons excluded and Persona KYC required ([Bio Protocol](https://www.bio.xyz/blog-posts/bringing-neuroscience-onchain-with-cerebrum-dao)). NEURON is a freely-transferable ERC-20 on Ethereum ([0xab81…4a6b](https://etherscan.io/token/0xab814ce69e15f6b9660a3b184c0b0c97b9394a6b)).

Holding NEURON confers **governance rights** over which research the DAO funds, plus exclusive access to the DAO's IP Tokens, discounted access to future brain-health products, and early access to any therapeutics it brings to market ([cerebrumdao.com/neuron-token](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/neuron-token)). Voting is token-weighted but **off-chain**, and the DAO's own site says where: every governance link on [cerebrumdao.com](https://www.cerebrumdao.com/neuron-token) points at the Snapshot space [cerebrumdao.eth](https://snapshot.box/#/s:cerebrumdao.eth), where a ballot is a signed message rather than a transaction. Weight is not raw balance either: the space runs two strategies, a `with-delegation` wrapper over `erc20-balance-of` so delegated NEURON counts for the delegate, and a `sablier-v2` strategy on the reserved recipient of a stream, so NEURON still vesting counts for the person it is vesting to. The distinction between signing and transacting is the subject of [on-chain versus off-chain governance](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/fundamentals/on-chain-vs-off-chain-governance).

## The governance record

The [cerebrumdao.eth](https://snapshot.box/#/s:cerebrumdao.eth) space has carried **20 proposals** against a quorum of 3,870,000,000 NEURON. Read on 18 August 2026, the five most recent all passed unanimously and all cleared quorum comfortably: [CDP-20](https://snapshot.box/#/s:cerebrumdao.eth/proposal/0xa6c1daa414bacfd8ee9b2dd0d16d03c8ca01e97ad789a3950e3395845a94f0c6), funding dark-microglia and lipidomics work, closed on **31 December 2025** with 7,360,852,054 NEURON For, zero Against and zero Abstain from twelve voting addresses; CDP-19 drew 6,879,399,526 from sixteen, CDP-18 6,213,626,585 from thirteen, CDP-17 9,471,106,026 from twelve and CDP-16 6,639,917,945 from sixteen. Not one of the five recorded a single vote against.

CDP-20 is also the most recent proposal of any kind: it was still the newest row in the [cerebrumdao.eth](https://snapshot.box/#/s:cerebrumdao.eth) space when the record was queried on 2 September 2026, so the gap runs from its close on 31 December 2025. It is dated from that close rather than published as an elapsed-day figure, which would be wrong the day after it was written. Proposal creation is restricted to an author allowlist of three addresses, so a NEURON holder can cast a ballot but cannot open one – the pattern this wiki measures across the whole BioDAO cohort under [proposal throttles and rate limits](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/proposal-throttles-and-rate-limits), where ten of twelve DeSci spaces gate proposing the same way. Twelve to sixteen voters and no dissent across two years is a small electorate ratifying a pipeline it did not assemble, which is the shape [voter apathy](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/analysis/voter-apathy) describes and [quorum design](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/quorum-and-threshold-design) cannot fix on its own.

## How Caper approaches this

Cerebrum shows both the promise and the tension in token-governed research funding. The promise is real: a community, not a single fund, decides which neuroscience gets backed, and owns the resulting IP-NFTs. The tension is that **NEURON is a freely-tradeable token** — so control over which science gets funded has a spot price. A large enough buyer can accumulate NEURON and tilt the funding pipeline, and the voice a long-time contributor earned is worth exactly the same as the same balance bought yesterday.

[Caper](/wiki/foundations/what-is-a-caper) keeps token-weighted stake but adds a factor that cannot be bought _off another holder_. Every ranked ballot mints one **soulbound proof-of-vote token**, and every buy and every sell mints 0.01 more per XRD of gross value — non-transferable and fractional (`DIVISIBILITY_MAXIMUM`, and mintable/depositable only by the DAO component so it can never move between holders; `contracts/core/src/caper_dao.rs`). A member's voting weight is `(t·v)/(V·T)` — held governance tokens `t` multiplied by their earned vote record `v`, over supply — and the treasury [exit](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/membership/rage-quit-and-exit-rights) share is computed by the very same formula. So a big NEURON-style bag still counts (`t` is a multiplier, not ignored), but it cannot by itself capture the pipeline: the decisive part of governance weight is a record you accumulate by trading and voting yourself, and once minted it can never be sold on.