Secretive biotech envisions brainless 'organ sacks' for organs, prompting ethics questions
A hush-hush Silicon Valley startup, R3 Bio, has floated the idea of nanosentient/brainless 'organ sacks'—organs grown in a platform for implantation or drug testing—sparking bioethics concerns. After an interview where cofounder Alice Gilman described such concepts, she pushed to postpone the episode and hinted at government involvement, fueling scrutiny. Wired and MIT Technology Review subsequently explored the ambitions, while R3 Bio insisted it has no ongoing work in organ fabrication and aims to replace animal testing with cell-based methods. The public record remains murky on progress, and critics question the company’s transparency about what it’s actually doing.