Case study · Cerebrum DAO · Head content strategist
Making decentralised science comprehensible.
Cerebrum DAO funds early-stage neuroscience that institutional investors avoid, the stage the industry calls the Valley of Death, through tokenised intellectual property and community votes. I was head content strategist. The job was to explain a new funding model to three audiences at once, to researchers, token holders and the public.
The problem
Everything about Cerebrum is hard to explain. Early-stage neuroscience, tokenised intellectual property, a community that votes on what gets funded, and three audiences who need different things from the same page. Researchers need to trust the due diligence. Token holders need to know what they own. Consumers have never heard of a DAO.
The work
- Content strategy. One voice across the website, newsletter, X and Discord, with a simple rule. Every mechanism explained the first time it appears, every claim sourced.
- Launch copy. Explainers, announcements and updates for the tokenised IP projects, including NEURON-Percepta as it went from hypothesis to an IRB-approved human trial.
- Long-form science. Readable pieces on neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, lipid biology and AI-assisted drug discovery, written with the science team.
- Product copy. Percepta, a supplement fifteen years in development at the University of Washington, and Cerebrum Cortex, a brain-health assessment built on Harvard's McCance Brain Care Score. No wallet required, and the copy had to make that obvious.
- Community. Newsletters and governance explainers so 115 members and 5,000-plus subscribers could follow along without a biology degree.
Impact and results
Four years in, Cerebrum's pipeline is delivering. $1.86M raised across four IPT projects. More than 45 research proposals reviewed. Fission Bio has produced 15 high-affinity drug candidates from a screen of over a billion virtual compounds. Transfidelity has identified lead compounds that improve ribosomal accuracy in ageing cells. Percepta is in a clinical trial that's actively recruiting. Two consumer products launched in a single quarter. Membership of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium.
The science team and the community produced those results. Content made them possible to understand, and that part was mine.
We operate in what the industry calls the Valley of Death. Most organizations avoid it. We think it's where we can add the most value.
Cerebrum DAO, "Four Years In. Here's What We've Built."
- Sitecerebrumdao.comDAO
- ProductCerebrum CortexBrain Health Score
- ProductCerebrum CognitionPercepta
- NewsletterContributor newsletterSubstack
What it taught me
Where plain English is worth most
Crypto, DeSci and tokenised assets are full of good ideas explained badly. The projects that raise money, keep their communities and ship products are the ones a newcomer can understand in a paragraph. That's a writing problem, and it's the one I most enjoy.