A San Francisco biotech startup is advancing brain-free “bodyoids” grown from human cells to create complete organ systems that could replace laboratory animals in drug research and one day supply organs for transplantation. Designed without a brain so they cannot experience consciousness, sentience, or pain, the platforms aim to replicate interactions of multiple organs inside one integrated system. “It’s not missing anything, because we design it to only have the things we want,” said Alice Gilman, R3 Bio’s co-founder and CEO, referring to the brain-free “organ sacks,” according to the New York Post.
R3 Bio describes its immediate goal as building complex biological platforms for scientific research rather than growing people. It says the brain-free design directly addresses ethical concerns associated with animal testing. The company argues that organ-only models could make testing more scalable and serve as a foundation for abandoning animal testing. It cautions that such a shift would require substantial investment and faster implementation.
The project has attracted significant investment interest, including from American billionaire Tim Draper and the Singaporean fund Immortal Dragons.
From mice to monkeys
The startup has developed the technology to create organ sacks in mice but has not yet implemented it. It plans to expand to monkeys and then human cells. Its researchers frame the work around whole-body function rather than isolated parts, contending that effective drug development and disease research require systems that mirror the body’s interconnected biology.
The startup says the gradual progression from mice to primates and then human cells is intended to build faithful biological fidelity into the models while maintaining strict boundaries to ensure non-sentience. According to the company’s description, the ultimate aim is to replace as many animal experiments as possible with targeted, human-derived platforms that can more accurately predict clinical responses.
Replacing organs
The concept has drawn backing from investors who see the approach as a step beyond repair and toward replacement for treating disease and regulating aging. Immortal Dragons, an investment fund and key R3 Bio backer, promotes replacing body parts over repairing them. Another investor, Boyan Van, suggested that sophisticated human biological models could provide a stream of donor organs.