🧠 Mass-Producing Brains, Pee-cycling Bones, and Why the EU Hates Chinese Band-Aids

Scientists are growing brains at scale, turning urine into bones in 24 hours, and creating synthetic embryos that develop beating hearts without any actual reproduction involved. Meanwhile, the EU just banned Chinese medical devices because apparently, even band-aids are now geopolitical weapons.

It's one of those weeks where biology has completely lost its mind, and politics somehow made healthcare weirder than the lab experiments. Buckle up.

Stembroids, synthetic embryo models that develop without eggs, sperm, or wombs, have officially made human reproduction look quaint. These lab-grown "embryos" reach the critical 14-day development milestone where specialized cells emerge, essentially creating a biological factory for young, healthy cells.

The breakthrough comes from Professor Jacob Hanna at Israel's Weizmann Institute, whose Palestinian background adds a compelling human dimension to this scientific achievement. His team has cracked the code on using four types of cellular "Lego blocks" to build complete developmental systems that mimic natural embryos with shocking accuracy - complete with beating hearts, brain folds, and all the cellular diversity of early human development.

RenewalBio has already secured exclusive licensing rights and major pharma partnerships, targeting bone marrow failure as their first application. The company's pitch is elegantly simple: why struggle with aging stem cells when you can create young ones from scratch? Their "natural bio-manufacturing platform" could theoretically produce any cell type the human body needs, turning regenerative medicine from science fiction into production reality. With FDA discussions already underway, we see huge potential in this technology. Imagine a bone marrow transplant derived from your own cells.

The regulatory landscape remains fascinatingly murky: scientists are literally debating whether to call these "synthetic embryos" or "embryo models," as if the terminology will somehow make the ethical implications less mind-bending. Meanwhile, the UK became the first country to publish specific guidelines for stem cell-based embryo models, probably because someone realized they needed rules before researchers started growing entire synthetic humans.

You can read more here

While everyone else is trying to reverse aging with expensive supplements, BioAge Labs went straight to the source: Norwegians who never seemed to age badly in the first place. Their partnership with Norway's HUNT Biobank, a 25-year longitudinal study of 17,000+ participants, represents perhaps the smartest strategy in aging research: study people who age well to help those who don't.

The HUNT study is genuinely exceptional in the biobanking world, tracking entire populations with the kind of comprehensive data that makes researchers weep with joy. Over 50% of participants developed cardiometabolic disease during the study period, creating a perfect natural experiment for understanding the molecular changes that precede disease onset.

BioAge's platform analyzes millions of molecular measurements to identify aging targets years before symptoms appear. Their approach essentially creates "molecular clocks" that can predict biological age and disease risk. Imagine getting a medical report that says you're 45 but your proteins suggest you're actually 60, with recommendations for preventing the diseases heading your way.

Following setbacks with its obesity drug (liver safety concerns), BioAge has doubled down on its aging platform expertise. Their exclusive access to decades of Norwegian health data might be the most valuable asset in biotech—irreplaceable longitudinal data that took decades to generate and requires population-scale participation that's increasingly difficult to achieve.

Read more from here and here

In the "didn't see that coming" category, 28bio's NEXON platform literally engineers human brains at scale for drug discovery. These aren't metaphorical brains: they're actual neural networks grown from stem cells, connected to computers, and trained to respond to pharmaceutical interventions.

The company's brain organoids develop multiple neuron types, complex neural circuits, and the ability to learn and form memory-like responses. Scientists have already taught these lab-grown brains to recognize speech patterns and play video games, because apparently even neurons need hobbies.

CEO Alif Saleh frames this as solving pharma's biggest headache: neurological drugs have the highest failure rate in the industry, despite skyrocketing investments. By testing drugs on actual human brain tissue instead of animal models, NEXON promises more accurate predictions of human responses and fewer expensive late-stage failures.

The competitive landscape is heating up rapidly. Cortical Labs launched their commercial CL1 system in March 2025 for $35,000 per unit, marketing "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" to researchers. Meanwhile, FinalSpark claims their organoid platforms are millions of times more energy-efficient than traditional processors—the human brain uses only 20 watts while data centers require gigawatt hours for AI training.

The ethical considerations remain fascinatingly unresolved. Current scientific consensus holds that these organoids lack consciousness, but as they become more sophisticated, we're approaching philosophical questions about the nature of consciousness itself. The ultimate irony: we're growing brains to study brains, and nobody's quite sure where the line is between smart tissue and sentient being.

You can find the 28bio press release here

In perhaps the year's most beautifully disgusting breakthrough, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have engineered yeast to convert human urine into hydroxyapatite, the mineral that makes up our bones and teeth. The process takes less than 24 hours and produces bone material identical to natural bone, essentially turning waste into the literal foundation of human structure.

The science is elegantly biomimetic: the engineered yeast replicates the mechanisms used by osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) to produce hydroxyapatite. Urea breakdown raises cellular pH, triggering calcium accumulation in yeast vacuoles, which then secrete vesicles containing amorphous calcium phosphate that crystallize into bone-quality mineral.

Production metrics are surprisingly robust: one gram of hydroxyapatite per liter of urine with 85% calcium utilization efficiency. For a San Francisco-sized city, this could generate $1.4 million in annual profit while reducing wastewater treatment costs by $54.5 per cubic meter. The technology simultaneously addresses waste management and the growing demand for bone replacement materials.

The broader implications could very well extend far beyond medicine. It could represent a fundamental shift toward a circular bioeconomy, using biological waste as feedstock for valuable products. The researchers embraced the inherent humor, coining terms like "pee-cycling" and noting they could "make more compounds in 6 weeks than in their entire career" using human waste.

Market impact could also be substantial: synthetic hydroxyapatite currently costs $50-200 per kilogram, while osteoyeast production costs just $19 per kilogram. The technology eliminates the energy-intensive chemical synthesis traditionally required, operating at mild conditions (37°C, pH 5.2) compared to conventional methods requiring high temperatures and extreme pH.

You can read the research from Nature Communications or read more here

In a move that would make Machiavelli proud, the European Union has banned Chinese companies from medical device tenders worth more than €5 million—the first-ever use of their International Procurement Instrument designed to ensure "reciprocal market access." The irony is exquisite: healing technologies have become weapons in international trade warfare.

The EU's investigation revealed that 87% of Chinese public tenders contained restrictions on imported medical devices, with approved imported devices in Guangdong Province dropping from 132 in 2019 to just 46 in 2021. China's "Buy China" policy systematically excluded EU products, prompting this unprecedented retaliation.

The ban covers the €150 billion European medical device market, including everything from surgical masks to X-ray machines. Chinese medical device imports to the EU doubled between 2015-2023, with China accounting for 44.6% of EU respirator imports and 49.0% of bandages. The restrictions include a maximum of 50% Chinese inputs allowed in successful bids from other companies.

China's response was swift and predictably indignant, with the Commerce Ministry calling the measures "protectionist" and "discriminatory." The timing creates maximum diplomatic pressure, coming just weeks before the scheduled EU-China Summit in Beijing in July 2025.

The broader context reveals escalating trade tensions across multiple sectors—electric vehicles, brandy, rare earths, and now medical devices. We now live in a world where bandages have become battlegrounds and surgical masks are strategic assets. The ultimate paradox: at a time when both sides need cooperation on global health challenges, they're weaponizing the tools designed to heal.

Industry reactions reveal the human cost: MedTech Europe's CEO expressed hope that "more meaningful dialogue" would emerge, emphasizing that medical devices are "vital for saving and improving people's lives." The message from both sides seems clear: we'll protect our markets even if patients end up paying more for life-saving equipment.

You can also check more from here and here

This week proved that reality has officially become stranger than any sci-fi writer could imagine. We've got lab-grown brains at scale while researchers turn bathroom waste into bones. The stembroids thing especially has us equal parts fascinated and slightly terrified. Are we building humans from scratch now, just without the messy reproduction part?

The EU-China medical device war is genuinely depressing, though. Imagine explaining to future historians that we turned healing technologies into trade weapons while people needed affordable healthcare. Sometimes politics makes even the weirdest science look rational by comparison.

But honestly? The pee-to-bone thing is just brilliantly gross. Leave it to scientists to solve two problems at once: what to do with waste and how to make bone implants cheaper. "Pee-cycling" might be the best scientific term we've heard all year.

What broke your brain this week? The brains at scale? The synthetic embryos that might cure aging? Or are you still processing that we can make bones from bathroom breaks? Hit reply! Your reactions to this stuff always make our day.

Wonder what’s coming in the future that puts sci-fi to shame. Let’s see next week! Prateek & Jere

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