by Frank Bergman

A secretive Silicon Valley biotech startup has ignited a firestorm after one of its top executives openly discussed plans to create brainless human bodies for medical experimentation and organ harvesting before later attempting to keep the interview from becoming public.

The company, R3 Bio, has drawn mounting scrutiny after its chief operating officer described plans to grow so-called “organ sacks.”

The “organ sacks” are described as human bodies grown without brains or consciousness to be used to harvest transplant organs and to conduct experiments to replace animal testing.

The extraordinary admissions have fueled ethical concerns among scientists and medical experts, particularly after the company appeared to distance itself from the remarks while continuing to promote similar concepts elsewhere.

Executive Describes Growing Human Bodies for Research

During a podcast interview recorded in February, R3 Bio co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Alice Gilman described the company’s vision for creating what she called “organ sacks.”

“It’s just pretty much a heart, lungs, and everything that you would find in a body,” Gilman said.

“But it’s not technically alive because it’s exclusively the organs.

“And they’re in this little biological platform that you can test on, and you can map out the cross-organ interactions.”

Podcast host Mangesh Hattikudur noted that Gilman repeatedly referred to the proposed human-like creations as “organ sacks,” describing them as bodies intentionally created without brains or consciousness.

Acknowledging how the concept might be received by the public, Gilman admitted, “I try to not be scary to an average person.”

According to Skyline Drive, however, Gilman later attempted to stop the interview from being released.

Podcast producers said that shortly before publication, Gilman requested the episode be postponed despite not disputing the accuracy of the conversation.

Instead, she reportedly insisted that the discussion was theoretical and referred to R3 Bio as a “federal asset,” while declining to explain what the company was currently developing.

Company’s Public Statements Raise New Questions

Just weeks later, R3 Bio publicly emerged in a feature published by Wired, where the company again discussed developing “organ sacks.”

Investor Boyang Wang told the publication that replacement organs could eventually prove superior to repairing diseased organs.

“Replacement is probably better than repair when it comes to treating diseases or regulating the aging process in the human body,” Wang said.

“If we can create a nonsentient, headless bodyoid for a human being, that will be a great source of organs.”

The company’s ambitions appeared even broader in a subsequent report by MIT Technology Review, which examined confidential presentations by R3 Bio co-founder John Schloendorn discussing “full body replacement” and “recent lab progress towards making replacement bodies.”

Following that report, R3 Bio rejected allegations that it was attempting to create human clones or intentionally brain-damaged humans.

The company said, “Any allegations of intent or conspiracy to create human clones or human beings with brain damage are categorically false.”

Monkey Research and Ethical Questions

During the Skyline Drive interview, Gilman said one of the company’s initial goals is to replace animal testing by reprogramming skin cells.

“We are working on replacing animal testing by using skin stem cells,” she said.

Gilman explained that R3 Bio had established operations in Puerto Rico because of its large monkey population.

“I’m a big animal rights advocate… I don’t want to keep monkeys in cages,” Gilman said.

“And there’s an option to have them run around the island with bracelets on.”

“We wanted monkey access and there’s a lot of monkeys here,” she added. “After negotiating with local companies that are supervising them, we can walk up to them, get some of their skin cells.”

Despite those remarks, R3 Bio’s website states that the company “does not work with live primates.”

Gilman also acknowledged a major scientific obstacle confronting the company’s vision.

When asked whether the proposed “organ sacks” would require part of a brain or nervous system to function, she suggested reducing neurological development could make the concept more socially acceptable but scientifically less viable.

“So the mice models can exist with a very limited set of nervous systems… but then there are other constraints on the ability of the organs to preserve themselves,” Gilman said.

“So there’s a way in which you can skew towards social acceptance and make less nervous system, and then when you scoot towards social acceptance, it looks better, but it’s less scientifically feasible.”

“So we are still making observations about how that would work.”

Although R3 Bio now states on its website that it has “no ongoing work” involving “full-scale human organ fabrication,” Gilman suggested during the interview that the company’s public disclosures do not necessarily reflect everything happening behind the scenes.

“Just because we don’t talk about a lot of things, that doesn’t mean they’re not happening,” she said.

Skyline Drive host Mangesh Hattikudur later said he was surprised by Gilman’s efforts to delay publication of the interview.

“The company hasn’t been exactly transparent about what they’re doing,” Hattikudur said.

“There’s a lot of mix between the hype they’re telling people and what they’ve actually achieved in the lab, which is not very clear.”

“If they were honest that this is what they believe in, and this is what they’re working on, it would actually be less of a big deal,” he added.

“It’s more that they awkwardly seem to be hiding something which everyone kind of knows about.”

The revelations have intensified debate over the ethical boundaries of biotechnology as advances in stem-cell science and regenerative medicine continue to accelerate, raising new questions about how far companies should be allowed to go in pursuit of replacement organs and human experimentation.