--- title: "Biohacker Bryan Johnson Announces Creation of a 'Clone Baby': How Stem Cells Promise to Save Him from an Incurable Disease" description: "Biohacker Bryan Johnson announced that he had \"cloned\" himself as a baby in a Petri dish to treat incurable gastritis. In reality, it is about stem cell technology, which is already showing results in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. 🧬🔬" date: 2026-07-24T14:06:58.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/bryan-johnson-clone-baby-stem-cells-incurable-disease tags: [brian-johnson, stem-cells, regenerative-medicine, yamanaka-factors] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Biohacker Bryan Johnson Announces Creation of a 'Clone Baby': How Stem Cells Promise to Save Him from an Incurable Disease ![Brian Johnson under red light, symbolizing biohacking experiments and cloning](https://xab.info/media/2026/07/24/braian-dzhonson-kloniroval-sebya-stvolovye-kletki/braian-dzhonson-kloniroval-sebya-stvolovye-kletki-1.webp) Famous biohacker and entrepreneur Bryan Johnson made a sensational statement that instantly divided the scientific community into skeptics and enthusiasts. In his blog, he reported that he had created his own copy in the form of a newborn, and now "Baby Bryan" exists in a Petri dish. However, behind the loud formulations lies the complex reality of regenerative medicine, where technologies already allow cells to be reprogrammed, but have not yet learned to grow full-fledged organs. ### "Baby Bryan" in a Petri Dish: Myth or Reality? Johnson's post begins with a provocative phrase about cloning himself as an infant. According to the 48-year-old entrepreneur, this "copy" will become the key to immortality and health. He listed a wide range of applications: from using the clone as his own blood donor to testing new therapies on it and growing organs for transplantation. However, if we set aside the pathos, the description of the procedure given by Johnson himself points to a completely different technology. We are not talking about cloning in the literal sense, but about working with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Neither an embryo nor a second physical Bryan Johnson was created. The biohacker himself described the stages of the process quite accurately: blood was taken from him, cells were extracted, Yamanaka factors were applied, the epigenetic age was reset, and the cells were returned to a state close to embryonic. This is exactly how iPSCs are obtained — universal cells capable of turning into any type of tissue in the body. ### Technology That Changed Medicine The technique used by Johnson was developed by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2012. The essence of the method lies in the use of a set of four transcription factors that reprogram a mature specialized cell (for example, a blood cell), erasing its "memory" of specialization. After such a procedure, the cell begins to behave like an embryonic cell and is capable of dividing indefinitely. Pluripotency means the ability to turn into hundreds of types of cells: neurons, cardiomyocytes, retinal cells, and other tissues. The key advantage of the technology is that the material is taken from the patient themselves, which minimizes the risk of rejection during transplantation. ### Reason for the Experiment: An Incurable Diagnosis The reason for such a radical step was a personal diagnosis. In early July, Johnson reported that he was diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis — an incurable condition in which the immune system attacks acid-producing cells in the stomach. He described it himself as "the stomach eating itself". The disease disrupts the absorption of nutrients, leading to iron and vitamin B12 deficiency, as well as the development of anemia. In the long term, the condition is associated with an increased risk of stomach cancer. Johnson cited poor nutrition and stress related to raising three children as the cause. He admitted that the diagnosis was one of the best events in a long time, as it opened up new avenues for body restoration. ### Dreams of Immortality vs. Medical Reality Johnson is known for his radical experiments on his own body. His Blueprint program included a strict diet, constant tests, and plasma transfusions. Not everything worked perfectly: in one interview, he admitted that he regretted taking growth hormone, which caused increased intracranial pressure and glucose level disturbances. Today's goal is to use iPSCs to treat gastritis. However, it is important to understand that growing full-fledged transplantable organs remains an extremely difficult task. Regenerative medicine has not yet solved the problem of the complex three-dimensional architecture of an organ, its vascular network, and its correct functioning after transplantation. In the laboratory, it is possible to obtain individual cell types and simple tissue structures, but growing a whole liver or kidney is currently impossible. ### First Clinical Successes Nevertheless, iPSC technology is already moving beyond the laboratory. In 2025, the journal Nature published the results of a small Phase I/II study in which precursors of dopaminergic neurons were transplanted into the brains of seven patients with Parkinson's disease. No serious adverse events or tumors were recorded during the observation period. Visualization showed that the transplanted cells survived and began to produce dopamine. This breakthrough gives hope that Bryan Johnson's experiments, despite their hypertrophied presentation, may become part of the real future of medicine.