Blackbox Information

Lab mice are the cornerstone of neuroscience discovery and drug development. Nearly every breakthrough therapy in neurology and psychiatry first passed through rodent behavior studies as the critical step before human clinical trials. After all, the nervous system of mice is remarkably similar to our own: it processes sensations and emotions just like ours, and is susceptible to the same diseases. Likewise, their state of mind is evident through body language - just like us! Characterizing changes in mouse behavior has proven difficult, however, and most pivotal rodent behavioral experiments still require hand-scoring, which is laborious and prone to bias. Imagine how challenging it is for a scientist sitting face-to-face with a mouse, for hours on end, documenting every twitch, scratch, and movement. Making matters worse, this work is typically done in a brightly lit room - an environment that causes mice to hide their natural behaviors, especially when they sense someone watching! This process is slow, subjective, and prone to bias, making it a major bottleneck for modern biopharma — even as automation and generative AI transform every other part of the laboratory. Blackbox Bio is a Harvard spinout commercializing an AI behavior characterization system using patented deep tech sensors and 3D-viewing hardware that solves this problem. Our bottom-up night vision camera and infrared illumination capture the behavior and physiology of unrestrained mice, in the dark, free from the suppressive effects of human observation. This vantage point reveals subtle signs of impairment and disease that conventional methods miss, enabling high-throughput, objective, and reproducible analysis at scale. Additionally, our rich data sets enable generation of AI "Virtual Mice" as experimental stand-ins, reducing animal use as we expand our understanding of human health. Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!