Research

Picture of a wolf and a dragon. These are models we used when considering cranifacial constraints, such as braincase size, ear positioning, the shape of the mouth and airways, and eye placement. Models strictly followed available anatomical references and computed tomography (CT) scan data.

Models we used when considering cranifacial constraints, such as braincase size, ear positioning, the shape of the mouth and airways, and eye placement. Models strictly followed available anatomical references and computed tomography (CT) scan data.

At the Freedom of Form Foundation, we embrace the broad diversity of identities that people hold. We are especially passionate about research into making morphological freedom possible for those with anthropomorphic, non-human forms.

We have been primarily directing our research to the areas most likely to be challenging: the head, the tail, the integument (skin/fur/scales/feathers), and the eyes. Our active research projects include the Anatomy Re-engineering Framework (ARF), Enhanced Tail project, Integument Review project, Wnt Peptide project (wet-lab experiments!), and eye modification review project.

Importantly, after carefully analyzing key areas of risk, such as multiple contraints on craniofacial shape, we are confident such forms are achievable within 30 years. Details are available in our technical roadmap, later on this page.

Results and projects

Below are some of our ongoing projects and publications that have resulted from research we supported or conducted.

Please note, the materials on this website are not comprehensive, and recently started projects may not be represented. Project teams have to lay a great deal of groundwork before it’s possible to concisely and accurately represent their work in the public eye. We are committed to giving our researchers the space they need in order to work effectively and prioritize obtaining results they’re confident in.

Anatomy Engineering CAD

The human body is too complex to re-engineer by hand, yet no tool exists to safely design and test drastic changes to patient anatomy. As such, we are creating a Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool specifically for body augmentation, surgery, and more advanced changes, to be used before a patient enters the clinic. Source code is under GPLv2.

Read more about the project.

How can you grow fur, scales, or feathers and become more like your fursona? This research attempts to uncover the genetic networks required.

Integument review project

Our Integument Review project is surveying and structuring biological knowledge about how fur, feathers, scales, and skin works, in order to identify molecular “knobs to turn” for transformations. There’s no shortcut to full mechanistic understanding if we want to actually modify tissues.

Project page is here ->

This project's goal is to engineer a cybernetic tail that feels completely natural to wear and control.

Enhanced tail project

This project’s goal is to engineer a cybernetic tail that feels completely natural to wear and control. The techniques and signal processing software we develop will make their way into increasingly convincing and immersive tails and other prosthetics. This software will eventually be useful in permanently attached neuroprosthetics.

Project page is here ->

Technical roadmap

We aim to enable identity affirmation procedures, primarily by our continued work on in-house, applied biomedical research. To be explicit, after carefully considering feasibility, our main long-term target is to make full-body, anthropomorphic procedures available to patients in no more than 30 years from now.

We are focusing on the areas we understand as being most challenging and important to a successful procedure: namely, the head, integument (skin/fur/feathers/scales), tail, and eyes. We explain why those regions present unique difficulties, and why other regions are potentially less difficult. Candidate technologies, including cellular and gene therapies, surgical approaches, and neuroprosthetics, are discussed alongside the respective anatomical regions.

Our technical roadmap is opinionated, is not intended to be air-tight, and will change as our research progresses. We hope that it helps you understand why we are prioritizing the projects we’re working on, and how they will come together over time. If you think we have missed something, or have new information that could affect our decisions, please let us know!

Note: If you have been following us before mid-2023, please note that our 2018 whitepapers on anatomy and research areas should be considered out of date. While much of the underlying information is still correct, some details are incorrect. More importantly, the 2018 whitepapers are closer to feasibility studies than an actionable roadmap.

We offer grants for external projects, especially ones with clear line-of-sight to completion. For example, if you are writing an academic article with a clear path to publishing, or need to get a few more components for a DIY project with relevance to our mission, we would be happy to help you get over the threshold and help you succeed.

So far, we have given two $4,000 awards to date. We’ve helped make an academic article about legal considerations around body autonomy get published through our first grant. We’ve helped Hugh Herr accelerate his lab’s research as well through a second award. Do you think your project could win our third award?

Please look at the grant offer and consider applying!

The Freedom of Form Foundation is, first and foremost, interested in advancing rights, ethics, and respect for individual choice. That includes a responsibility for rights and ethics during the research process itself. We are proactive in protecting the rights of research subjects, and will not fund primate studies. We also encourage researchers to open and share their data as much as possible. Please take a look at our integrated policies for responsible research.

Previous results and publications

Journal publication: Ramanauskas, 2020

We’re interested in researching social and legal considerations as well. We helped make it possible for Ben Ramanauskas to publish in Economic Affairs (February 2020) about body autonomy. The article surveys laws and court cases, and makes a case for reform. (Please note that as a 501(c)(3) we cannot directly call for specific legislation).

Read more here ->

The face is probably the biggest source of species dysphoria. Physically becoming an anthro wolf or dragon will involve changing several tissues, such as growing a snout, growing horns, or morphing the ears.

Anatomy Feasibility Discussion (2018)

In this 2018 whitepaper, we took our first shot at answering the question: What exactly is required to transform into your fursona? Here, we broke down some of our goals into anatomical targets. We found that this isn’t some insurmountable monolith – we can all focus on solving one challenge at a time. Additionally, this page links to a longer, in-depth whitepaper (PDF) for more detail.

Please note that some information in this whitepaper is now out of date, but much of it is still useful. Additionally, we wish to keep the 2018 whitepaper online for archival purposes. Refer to our Technical Roadmap for the most up-to-date and authoritative information about our technical goals and strategy. 

Read more here ->

Research Areas Discussion (2018)

In this 2018 whitepaper, we put our heads together to think about what biomedical technologies, whether available now or conceivably available in the near-future, would be applicable to full-body modification procedures. We learned about surgical techniques such as distraction osteogensis, bioprinting techniques that, more recently, are entering real-world clinical trials, stem cell and genetic therapies that have become dramatically more capable in the past 5 years, and neuroprosthetics that are getting ever closer to connecting someone’s mind to devices that help them interact with the world.

It is, honestly, extremely encouraging to look back at this whitepaper and think about just how far things have come in the past 5 years – and imagine how much further they’ll go in another 5!

Read more here ->