Stanford grows half-human mouse brains; Xenon drops 30% — SkimNews
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- Stanford published Wednesday in Nature: mice with genetically reduced brains hosting human cerebral organoids, producing pups whose brains are half-human by volume and whose pyramidal neurons extended into the spinal cord.link ›
- The chimeras contained super-sized social-cognition neurons previously documented only in elephants, whales, and primates — a cell type that lab dishes cannot produce.link ›
- Xenon Pharmaceuticals cratered roughly 30% to US$39.81 after pausing its Phase 3 major depressive disorder trial over confusion, aphasia, ataxia, and one case of psychosis.link ›
- Xenon filed its FDA new-drug application for azetukalner in focal-onset seizures the same day — RBC's Brian Abrahams cut his target to US$70 but kept his thesis, calling epilepsy the real value driver.link ›
- Azetukalner delivered a 53.2% median seizure reduction at 25 mg daily in a 380-patient Phase 3, outperforming placebo by 42.7 percentage points.link ›
- US men had 1.6 million non-surgical and nearly 100,000 surgical cosmetic procedures in 2024 — a 4% annual rise — with Kavitha Ranganathan at Brigham and Women's blaming the Zoom boom and Instagram filters.link ›
- Dark chocolate scent (90% cocoa) added 18 leg-extension reps with no extra perceived effort in 23 fasted men; milk chocolate added about 9, per Dr. Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin.link ›
- IN8bio hired Oxana Polyakova as SVP of R&D from LAVA Therapeutics, the latest gamma-delta T cell therapy seat shuffle in oncology biotech.link ›
Stanford scientists grew human cerebral organoids inside mice whose own brains were genetically reduced, producing neuro-chimeric pups roughly half-human by brain volume — and inside them, rare cell types a dish cannot grow, including pyramidal projection neurons that reached into the animals' spinal cords. Published Wednesday in Nature, the work delivered the first in vivo look at super-sized social-cognition neurons previously documented only in elephants, whales, and primates; the Stanford team itself flagged that the ethical lines will harden as the chimeras mature. In pharma, Xenon Pharmaceuticals cratered about 30% to US$39.81 after pausing enrollment in its Phase 3 depression trial over confusion, aphasia, ataxia, and one psychosis case — on the same day it filed its FDA application for azetukalner in epilepsy, where RBC says the real value lives.
The stories behind this week
Stanford Builds Mice With Half-Human BrainsThe model gives researchers access to rare human brain cell types — like social-cognition neurons unique to elephants, whales, and primates — that lab dishes cannot produce, potentially reshaping studies of brain development and disease. But it also forces the field to confront ethical lines around human-animal neural chimeras before the science outruns the rules.
Why Dogs Ignore Low-Flying Planes — Readers Weigh InReader responses span the full behavioral spectrum — fear-based hiding linked to a thunder association, brief visual curiosity, and active chasing — suggesting dog reactions to low-flying planes are shaped by individual temperament and prior sound associations rather than a single species-wide trait.
SpaceX Starship Launches First Orbital Flight With Starlink SatellitesThis mission shifts Starship from pure testing to commercial utility by deploying working satellites, proving its value to SpaceX’s business model. With only five flights in the prior year against earlier ambitions of 25, success here is critical to justify investor confidence and accelerate launch cadence.
Young Men Seek More Plastic Surgery Amid Social Media PressureThe rise in cosmetic procedures among young men reflects a systemic shift where appearance is financially rewarded, incentivizing risky behavior. With nearly two-thirds of young men exposed to 'masculinity influencer' content, platform design choices—like default self-view settings and unregulated medical claims—directly affect mental health outcomes at scale.
Xenon stock plunges as B.C. drug developer pauses enrolment in depression studyThe 30% single-day wipeout erased all gains since Xenon's March epilepsy readout, showing investors had priced in depression upside beyond the drug's core indication. RBC's maintained thesis — epilepsy unaffected, launch still expected — suggests the real value driver was never psychiatry in the first place, leaving the sell-off looking overdone relative to fundamentals.
Smelling Chocolate Boosts Reps, Cuts HungerAthletes and fitness programs could leverage simple sensory cues like chocolate scent to boost training volume without added fatigue, suggesting non-nutritional strategies for performance—though applicability remains uncertain beyond young, fasted men. The 18-rep gain with dark chocolate exceeds typical ergogenic aids' marginal improvements.
Slime Mould Grad Student Stars In New Sci-Fi NovelThe novel is unusual in being built from primary consultations with three named working scientists across distinct fields — astronomy, molecular biology, and archaeology — meaning its slime-mould biology, cosmic setting, and Roman subplot are each anchored to current research rather than invented whole-cloth. For spec-fic readers, that gives 'A Wall Is Also a Road' tangible scientific grounding that most alien-prose sci-fi skips.
IN8bio Hires Oxana Polyakova as SVP of R&DIN8bio, a clinical-stage biotech focused on gamma-delta T cell therapies for cancer, is placing an experienced drug-development leader in its top R&D seat. Polyakova's transition from a CSO role at LAVA Therapeutics — another oncology-focused biotech — signals continued cross-pollination of scientific leadership across the cell therapy space as IN8bio advances its pipeline.
Why it matters: Stanford's chimeric mice are the first working in-vivo model for rare human brain cell types — but the ethical questions the team itself flagged will decide whether the field actually gets to scale this work beyond a Nature paper.
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