Antonio Regalado
@antonioregalado.bsky.social
Journalist covering biotechnology for MIT Technology Review. Scoops about new methods in genetics and cell biology. The "playing God" beat. Gene editing, gene therapy, ancient DNA, synthetic embryos, cloning, etc.
I am preparing MIT Technology Review's infamous list of "worst" technologies of the year.
What are 2025's biggest failures, set backs, and misfires but which also hold useful lessons about technology?
I think Cybertruck has to be on the list. Tell me your picks in the replies👇!!
What are 2025's biggest failures, set backs, and misfires but which also hold useful lessons about technology?
I think Cybertruck has to be on the list. Tell me your picks in the replies👇!!
December 4, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I am preparing MIT Technology Review's infamous list of "worst" technologies of the year.
What are 2025's biggest failures, set backs, and misfires but which also hold useful lessons about technology?
I think Cybertruck has to be on the list. Tell me your picks in the replies👇!!
What are 2025's biggest failures, set backs, and misfires but which also hold useful lessons about technology?
I think Cybertruck has to be on the list. Tell me your picks in the replies👇!!
A month after Bari Weiss hired to lead CBS News division, heretic eugenics philosopher Jonathan Anomaly is on the morning show pitching bell curves and embryo scores.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVM...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVM...
November 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
A month after Bari Weiss hired to lead CBS News division, heretic eugenics philosopher Jonathan Anomaly is on the morning show pitching bell curves and embryo scores.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVM...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVM...
anyway, FYI, here is a person will billions in crypto proposing something (unspecified) about trisomy KO on the other site.
September 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
anyway, FYI, here is a person will billions in crypto proposing something (unspecified) about trisomy KO on the other site.
Let biotechnology bring forth mammoths™ and birds™ and beasts™ of every kind. And it was so.
April 16, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Let biotechnology bring forth mammoths™ and birds™ and beasts™ of every kind. And it was so.
17/ Back to Earth.
The authors propose bodyoid research should start now, with lab animals, like rodents.
But you can imagine farm animals too. How about a brainless chicken, or pig with minimal neural structure? Would such animals be more ethical to consume?
The authors propose bodyoid research should start now, with lab animals, like rodents.
But you can imagine farm animals too. How about a brainless chicken, or pig with minimal neural structure? Would such animals be more ethical to consume?
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
17/ Back to Earth.
The authors propose bodyoid research should start now, with lab animals, like rodents.
But you can imagine farm animals too. How about a brainless chicken, or pig with minimal neural structure? Would such animals be more ethical to consume?
The authors propose bodyoid research should start now, with lab animals, like rodents.
But you can imagine farm animals too. How about a brainless chicken, or pig with minimal neural structure? Would such animals be more ethical to consume?
16/ But can a complete human bodyoid ever be 'born'? The technology for that does not yet exist.
Ex-utero growth of an entire human body, from embryo to birth, is an unsolved problem.
Even if you could, where would you keep them? Would you have to feed them for 18 years?
Ex-utero growth of an entire human body, from embryo to birth, is an unsolved problem.
Even if you could, where would you keep them? Would you have to feed them for 18 years?
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
16/ But can a complete human bodyoid ever be 'born'? The technology for that does not yet exist.
Ex-utero growth of an entire human body, from embryo to birth, is an unsolved problem.
Even if you could, where would you keep them? Would you have to feed them for 18 years?
Ex-utero growth of an entire human body, from embryo to birth, is an unsolved problem.
Even if you could, where would you keep them? Would you have to feed them for 18 years?
15/ At whatever stage of development, these clonal beings can be altered using CRISPR to remove genes required for complete brain development.
There is even a gene, if disabled, which results in a body with no head. Here is the result in a mouse.
There is even a gene, if disabled, which results in a body with no head. Here is the result in a mouse.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
15/ At whatever stage of development, these clonal beings can be altered using CRISPR to remove genes required for complete brain development.
There is even a gene, if disabled, which results in a body with no head. Here is the result in a mouse.
There is even a gene, if disabled, which results in a body with no head. Here is the result in a mouse.
13/ You might be asking, are bodyoids for real?
Well, one type already exists: synthetic human embyros, or embryoids.
These are ersatz embryos made from stem cells which mimic real embryos, but only upto a couple of weeks of age.
Researchers hope to grow them further.
Well, one type already exists: synthetic human embyros, or embryoids.
These are ersatz embryos made from stem cells which mimic real embryos, but only upto a couple of weeks of age.
Researchers hope to grow them further.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
13/ You might be asking, are bodyoids for real?
Well, one type already exists: synthetic human embyros, or embryoids.
These are ersatz embryos made from stem cells which mimic real embryos, but only upto a couple of weeks of age.
Researchers hope to grow them further.
Well, one type already exists: synthetic human embyros, or embryoids.
These are ersatz embryos made from stem cells which mimic real embryos, but only upto a couple of weeks of age.
Researchers hope to grow them further.
11/ Here's another ethical wrinkle.
A bodyoid, if made from stem cells, is a clone. A clone of the cell donor.
A youthful, brainless, copy of someone.
A bodyoid, if made from stem cells, is a clone. A clone of the cell donor.
A youthful, brainless, copy of someone.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
11/ Here's another ethical wrinkle.
A bodyoid, if made from stem cells, is a clone. A clone of the cell donor.
A youthful, brainless, copy of someone.
A bodyoid, if made from stem cells, is a clone. A clone of the cell donor.
A youthful, brainless, copy of someone.
10/ "Just because it looks like us? A sufficiently detailed mannequin can [also] meet that test. Because it looks like us and is alive? Because it is alive and has our DNA?"
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
10/ "Just because it looks like us? A sufficiently detailed mannequin can [also] meet that test. Because it looks like us and is alive? Because it is alive and has our DNA?"
8/Is there an ethical issue with a bodyoid -- a body with no functioning brain?
Brain or not, such entities could still shock the sensibilities. The human form has a meaning to us, even in the absence of consciousness. The human form is divine, some say.
Brain or not, such entities could still shock the sensibilities. The human form has a meaning to us, even in the absence of consciousness. The human form is divine, some say.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
8/Is there an ethical issue with a bodyoid -- a body with no functioning brain?
Brain or not, such entities could still shock the sensibilities. The human form has a meaning to us, even in the absence of consciousness. The human form is divine, some say.
Brain or not, such entities could still shock the sensibilities. The human form has a meaning to us, even in the absence of consciousness. The human form is divine, some say.
7/Why they want to manufacture brainless bodies?
To remove their organs for transplant. To carry out medical experiments upon them, the authors argue.
More relevant than mice. More readily available than brain-dead people on life support (today's version of bodyoids)
From the item:
To remove their organs for transplant. To carry out medical experiments upon them, the authors argue.
More relevant than mice. More readily available than brain-dead people on life support (today's version of bodyoids)
From the item:
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
7/Why they want to manufacture brainless bodies?
To remove their organs for transplant. To carry out medical experiments upon them, the authors argue.
More relevant than mice. More readily available than brain-dead people on life support (today's version of bodyoids)
From the item:
To remove their organs for transplant. To carry out medical experiments upon them, the authors argue.
More relevant than mice. More readily available than brain-dead people on life support (today's version of bodyoids)
From the item:
5/ The bodyoids argument is put forward today in MIT Technology Review by Stanford stem-cell specialist Hiromitsu Nakauchi, his trainee Carsten Charlesworth, and noted legal scholar and bioethicist Hank Greely.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
5/ The bodyoids argument is put forward today in MIT Technology Review by Stanford stem-cell specialist Hiromitsu Nakauchi, his trainee Carsten Charlesworth, and noted legal scholar and bioethicist Hank Greely.
3/ Do human bodyoids exist? Not yet. But we may soon have the technology to make them.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
3/ Do human bodyoids exist? Not yet. But we may soon have the technology to make them.
2/ What is a bodyoid?
It is a *proposal* for human bodies, made from stem cells, and grown in artificial wombs, "that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain."
Bodies to take organs from, or do research on.
It is a *proposal* for human bodies, made from stem cells, and grown in artificial wombs, "that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain."
Bodies to take organs from, or do research on.
March 25, 2025 at 6:52 PM
2/ What is a bodyoid?
It is a *proposal* for human bodies, made from stem cells, and grown in artificial wombs, "that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain."
Bodies to take organs from, or do research on.
It is a *proposal* for human bodies, made from stem cells, and grown in artificial wombs, "that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain."
Bodies to take organs from, or do research on.
For $19.99, couldn't resist this addition to my biotech t-shirt collection.
March 19, 2025 at 7:45 PM
For $19.99, couldn't resist this addition to my biotech t-shirt collection.
Renee Wegrzyn Founding director of ARPA-H (the DARPA of medical research) is out of a job, and apparently very suddenly.
February 14, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Renee Wegrzyn Founding director of ARPA-H (the DARPA of medical research) is out of a job, and apparently very suddenly.
yeah, im just referring to the look--and menancing reputation --they used to have. for example, here's an archive pic of mustachioed -hat-wearing Lt. Col. Tejero of the Guardia Civil staging a coup d'etat in 1981
January 8, 2025 at 8:39 PM
yeah, im just referring to the look--and menancing reputation --they used to have. for example, here's an archive pic of mustachioed -hat-wearing Lt. Col. Tejero of the Guardia Civil staging a coup d'etat in 1981
Technical drawing of an infant gestating inside an artificial womb.
Emanuel M. Greenberg, ARTIFICIAL UTERUS, U.S. Patent No. 2,723,660 (November 15, 1955)
Emanuel M. Greenberg, ARTIFICIAL UTERUS, U.S. Patent No. 2,723,660 (November 15, 1955)
January 4, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Technical drawing of an infant gestating inside an artificial womb.
Emanuel M. Greenberg, ARTIFICIAL UTERUS, U.S. Patent No. 2,723,660 (November 15, 1955)
Emanuel M. Greenberg, ARTIFICIAL UTERUS, U.S. Patent No. 2,723,660 (November 15, 1955)
Ancient DNA. Often said that the number of old human skeletons whose DNA is being sequence is increasing "exponentially."
Here is the data, from the Allen Resource for ancient DNA.
I mean, the trend is more...punctuated linearity? Someone help me feel ok calling this exponential.
Here is the data, from the Allen Resource for ancient DNA.
I mean, the trend is more...punctuated linearity? Someone help me feel ok calling this exponential.
January 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Ancient DNA. Often said that the number of old human skeletons whose DNA is being sequence is increasing "exponentially."
Here is the data, from the Allen Resource for ancient DNA.
I mean, the trend is more...punctuated linearity? Someone help me feel ok calling this exponential.
Here is the data, from the Allen Resource for ancient DNA.
I mean, the trend is more...punctuated linearity? Someone help me feel ok calling this exponential.
Well now, it's been 25 years of research on pluripotent stem cells and still no approved treatments. So it's not very good area at all. Terrible for biotech investment.
BUT...BUT...we perceive finally the principle of replacement cells is being proved in two diseases: epilepsy and diabetes.
BUT...BUT...we perceive finally the principle of replacement cells is being proved in two diseases: epilepsy and diabetes.
January 3, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Well now, it's been 25 years of research on pluripotent stem cells and still no approved treatments. So it's not very good area at all. Terrible for biotech investment.
BUT...BUT...we perceive finally the principle of replacement cells is being proved in two diseases: epilepsy and diabetes.
BUT...BUT...we perceive finally the principle of replacement cells is being proved in two diseases: epilepsy and diabetes.
IVM (in vitro maturation) has long been used in IVF clinics and idea dates to 1940s. its not used that commonly, but is a thing.
its less efficient at getting a baby tho. so updake could be low unless new process 'closes' efficieny gap, in which case other benefits (fewer shots) will matter.
its less efficient at getting a baby tho. so updake could be low unless new process 'closes' efficieny gap, in which case other benefits (fewer shots) will matter.
December 17, 2024 at 10:11 PM
IVM (in vitro maturation) has long been used in IVF clinics and idea dates to 1940s. its not used that commonly, but is a thing.
its less efficient at getting a baby tho. so updake could be low unless new process 'closes' efficieny gap, in which case other benefits (fewer shots) will matter.
its less efficient at getting a baby tho. so updake could be low unless new process 'closes' efficieny gap, in which case other benefits (fewer shots) will matter.
Quite a story here about an IVF clinic mixup. Do you trade the baby you carried and cuddled for your biological child?
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...
November 25, 2024 at 5:25 PM
Quite a story here about an IVF clinic mixup. Do you trade the baby you carried and cuddled for your biological child?
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...
Good one--devastating reviews. It made our 2023 list. What do you think of Apple Vision Pro?
November 21, 2024 at 9:57 PM
Good one--devastating reviews. It made our 2023 list. What do you think of Apple Vision Pro?
Seeking candidates for TR's infamous list of the "Worst" technologies of the year!!! Looking for tech that blew up, flopped in the market, or that we just love to hate. Extra points if failure holds a lesson.
What are you picks? Please give me some ideas in replies 👇. All areas of technology.
What are you picks? Please give me some ideas in replies 👇. All areas of technology.
November 21, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Seeking candidates for TR's infamous list of the "Worst" technologies of the year!!! Looking for tech that blew up, flopped in the market, or that we just love to hate. Extra points if failure holds a lesson.
What are you picks? Please give me some ideas in replies 👇. All areas of technology.
What are you picks? Please give me some ideas in replies 👇. All areas of technology.