What happens to your cells after you die? You may think it is pretty simple. After we die, our cells die as well. However, this may be false. Research suggests that our cells are still alive, even after we die.

Let’s start simple with a very quick refresher on cells. Cells are little microscopic organisms that make up every living thing. There are millions, if not billions, of them in even the tiniest of organisms. It’s also pretty well known that all cells are hyperspecialized, having one singular purpose that they perform until they die. But after death, this changes.

How? Well, according to Peter A. Noble and Alez Pozhitkov at The Conversation, after the main organism dies, the cells rearrange themselves in order to adapt to the new environment. This allows the cells to perform all new functions completely separate from their usual roles.

For example, scientists found that cells from the skin of a deceased frog embryo were able to reorganize their very DNA to become new organisms named Xenobots with new purposes. They used their cilia, little hairs used to transport mucus, to move themselves. With these adaptations, they were more than capable of living on their own after the embryo died.

Another study done on human lung cells yielded something even more exciting. After death, the cells could rearrange into something called an Anthrobot. These Anthrobots could not only move around, but also repair themselves and injured neuron cells nearby!

However, this does have its limits. First of all, not all cells live long enough to be useful as Anthrobots. For example, human white blood cells only live for about 3 days after death. Secondly, this has only been witnessed in a lab setting, aka in a petri dish. Although promising, we simply don’t know if this can work inside a human body.

Despite all this, scientists are still hypothesizing about how this can be used in medicine. Peter A. Noble and Alex Pozhitkov theorize that Antrobots could be sourced from a patient’s cells to deliver medicine without the immune system rejecting it. Another important thing about anthrobots is that they have a short life span, only living 6 weeks at most. This prevents it from becoming an invasive cell, making it an even more appealing option for medicine.

Even if we never get Anthrobot medications in our stores or pharmacies, this is still a very important discovery that has and will continue to change everything we know about the life cycle. Maybe one day, we’ll be learning about anthrobots and how they tie into biology as a whole as a part of our science classes.