A 3rd (?) germline editing co announced @antonioregalado.bsky.social in @technologyreview.com, www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/31/1... I mainly share Fyodor's reaction, quoted in story—"In his email, Urnov said the launch of still another venture into the area made him want to “howl with pain.”

The astonishing science of synthetic embryology and our profile of it's most ambitious praticioner, Jacob Hanna www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/21/1...

Read this item by TB researcher whose grant got cancelled as 'dangerous gain of function.' Ironic, because the administration (RFK), has promoted whole‑virus vaccines, whose development, especially if they are attenuated, probably relies on very similar techniques.

Here come the first "generative" genomes. Folks at the Arc Institute used an AI trained on DNA sequence to propose code for novel bacteriophage genomes. Of the 302 they synthesized, 16 actually worked--replicating and killing E. Coli. www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/17/1...

Can AI create a life form? These "generative" genomes are a start. New from @antonioregalado.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/17/1...

Can anyone find a Berman MF et al. Neurotoxicology 2008; 29(5), 914–922 ? This is a fake citation. www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neur...

World famous synthetic embryo scientist stopped while entering U.S. Agent: Any embryos in your luggage? Scientist: One sec. [Opens guideline booklet of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.] Scientist: Nope, just 3-D structures derived from pluripotent stem cells.

Coinbase CEO, net worth ~$10B, wants to start definitive embryo editing company in the US. Making a gene-edit baby is prohibited in most of the world. But the winds can change. www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/05/1...

OMG. Government "Make America Healthy Again" report has references to non-existent papers, suggesting US medical policy is partly plagiarized AI slop. Calling on author, NIH director @drjbhattacharya.bsky.social‬ to issue correction + investigate AI plagiarism www.notus.org/health-scien...

Japanese company to remove anachronisms from corporate names. What other companies have anachronisms in their names or logos?

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

Patient was posting from a Musk implant, with the help of Musk's AI, on a Musk media platform and in reply to a Musk fanboy, if not actually the “alt” of the richest person in the world. So it’s fair to ask: Where does patient end and Musk’s ecosystem begin? www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/07/1...

This is pig. I mean big. FDA approves gene-edited pig resistant to common swine virus. more 👇https://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/pic-receives-us-approval-for-gene-edited-prrs-resistant-pigs.html

Let biotechnology bring forth mammoths™ and birds™ and beasts™ of every kind. And it was so.

Colossal Biosciences is trying to win patents on the "Woolly mammoth" and the "dire wolf." www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...

Dream on. As Antonio knows, head transplants were done decades in dogs & monkeys but sad failures. And Sergio Canavero kept promising human ones "by the end of the year" (For a decade?) Anyway (the great) Lois McMaster Bujold (winner of FOUR best novel Hugos) got there decades ago.

This paper is the weirdest & most unsettling thing I've ever (co)written. & HUGE science questions—not just ectogenesis, but could a "brainless" animal survive? would it be a good model for a "real" animal? And ethics question, which are much bigger with humans. But I think it needs discussion.

Imagine human bodies grown without complete brains, without consciousness. These are "bodyoids." And today in MIT Technology Review, researchers from Stanford University are ready to talk about them. www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/25/1...

Email sent to FDA staff informs that agency leadership canceled the agency's LexisNexis subscription, even though staff need this tool to research legal and regulatory information as part of their jobs. I'm reproducing the text of the email here:

For $19.99, couldn't resist this addition to my biotech t-shirt collection.

GIVE THEM TRUNKS YOU COWARDS www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

We looked into the booming field of ancient DNA research, how it's telling stories from pre-history and how some of the old information is being teleported into the present and added to plants in a bid to defeat climate change. www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/17/1...

Renee Wegrzyn Founding director of ARPA-H (the DARPA of medical research) is out of a job, and apparently very suddenly.

This 👇is a 🎯 all-in-one H5N1 tracking tool to bookmark & share: H5N1 US Tracker - Ginkgo Biosecurity www.ginkgobiosecurity.com/h5n1-us-trac... H/t @rhonda234567.bsky.social

CIA now favours covid lab leak theory. BUT critical to note: 'The agency made its new assessment with “low confidence,” which means the intelligence behind it is fragmentary and incomplete.' nytimes.com/2025/01/25/u...

Google DeepMind won a Nobel Prize for protein prediction. Now OpenAI says it's getting into the game as well, with model trained on protein sequences that' being used in longevity research. www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/17/1...

What to expect from Elon Musk's Neuralink in 2025. www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/16/1...

Doc, does this mean I shouldn't swallow the toothpaste?

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)

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.

MIT Technology Review annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies of the year. They are: Vera C. Rubin Observatory Generative AI search Small language models Cattle burping remedies Robotaxis Cleaner jet fuel Fast-learning robots HIV prevention med Green steel Stem-cell therapies that work

An accumulation of somatic mutations cause cancer. But do they also cause a misunderstood class of other conditions that aren't inborn, but arise in adulthood? An M.D. writing in Atlantic draws together some rare examples. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

New documentary follows career of MIT prof Phil Sharp and rise of biotech industry. Sharp shared 1993 Nobel for how RNA codes proteins and he co-founded founded Biogen, Alnylam, among others. Director is Bill Haney, a biotech exec. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruJd...

In the 20 years since the term “microplastics” was first coined, a growing body of research has consistently shown how pervasive and problematic the pollutants have become. A recent #ScienceReview provides an overview and the progress made in understanding #microplastics.

5.5% of prescriptions doctors write in the U.S. are for GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy/Ozempic. Up from 1% in 2021 -used for diabetes and weight loss -women 2X as likely -50% of scripts for weight loss unfilled (presumably, due to high price) www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/20/1...

Our annual list of the worst technology failures, flimflams and foul ups is live The winners are: -Google Woke AI -Boeing Starliner -Crowdstrike Outage -Vertical Farms -Exploding Pagers -23andMe -AI Slop -Voluntary Carbon Markets www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/17/1...

remember Biden's cancer moonshot? what ever happened to that

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...

Technology Review reports on "10 Years of Womb Transplants: What Have We Learned?" The oldest person gestated in a transplanted womb is now 10 years old. Overall, about 50 births from ~135 womb transplants. www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/22/1...

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.

In this post, Robert F. Kennedy signaled several of his contrarian medical takes. Vis a vis "stem cells" he is referring to a range of unproven injections that the FDA sometimes cracks down on. As far as anyone knows, these treatments raise health expenditures for no improvement in health.

A picture of notched and polished eagle talons retrieved from a Neanderthal site in Croatia, and ChatGPT's rendering of a Neanderthal wearing a necklace made from eagle talons.

The end of 23andMe’s drug discovery dream. www.statnews.com/2024/11/11/2...

I LOVE the starter packs getting more and more niche “biology pack” -> “cellular biology” -> “organelle biology” -> “mitochondria pack” -> “mammalian mitochondrial evolution studies in Northern Europe on a Wednesday pack”

As soon as they pass organoid testing !?#47^%!!

At link below you can bundled lists of Bsky accounts, sorted by topic. You can follow the whole bundle with one click. I found several lists related to genetics, but none related to embryos/embryology ( :=( )

I saw "The Substance" with Demi Moore over the weekend. If you liked Barbie, but wish that it had included a lot more teratomas, then The Substance is the movie for you. I definitely had to cover my eyes a few times. Rating: B (1/4)

Should scientists leave "X" now that it's awash in utter B.S. and hundreds of wanna-be Alex Joneses? Here's a neuroscientist on Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/wiri...) who is also going to stick around X as well and his argument for why. x.com/WiringTheBra...

"The Substance" is an age-reversal horror film and social commentary starring Demi Moore. The titular substance is a 'rejuvenation' drug although when I checked, no particular mechanism of action is suggested. i.e. this is not the first cellular reprogramming movie.