Researchers test transplanting gene-edited pigs' organs into monkeys before humans

In order to make organ transplants more feasible for humans, scientists are working towards transplanting genetically modified pigs' organs in monkeys for testing.

A firm eGenesis used CRIPSR gene-editing techniques aiming to end the shortage of donated organs by modifying pig organs’ genes. The firm is now trying to adapt pig organs scientifically so that they are suitable for human use someday.

The firm is testing the gene-edited pig organs by transplanting them into monkeys, a necessary step towards human use, as per The Sun.

New gene-editing system uses ‘jumping genes’ to insert DNA without cutting them

“What we’re doing is a necessary step,” said experiment lead James Markmann. “We’d be hard pressed to put a modified organ into a human until it’s been tested in a large animal.”

Details about what organs will be transplanted and on what species of monkey will they be transplanted was not revealed. However, the researchers claim that they are the most highly engineered and advanced pig organs ever created, reported New York Post.

Moreover, though this work sounds promising, but it is not something new. Researchers have previously kept gene-edited pig hearts beating inside baboons, alongside their own heart, for about two years; while another experiment kept several baboons alive for about six months after their hearts were swapped with one from a gene-edited pig’s.

Markmann expressed, “The fact that there are pig organs surviving for six months or a year, or a couple of years, is really extraordinary, and it says this can be done,” he says. “Everybody sees that we’re at a turning point.”