He Got a Pig Kidney Transplant. Now Doctors Need to Keep It Working

[ Other than rejection of the organ, one of the most common transplant complications is infection. Doctors have to strike a balance when prescribing immunosuppressive drugs: too low a dose can lead to rejection, while too much can make a patient vulnerable to infection. Immunosuppressants are powerful drugs that can cause a range of side … Read more

A Gene-Edited Pig Liver Was Attached to a Person—and Worked for 3 Days

[ That has led researchers to genetically alter pigs in an attempt to make their organs a better match. The biotech company that bred the pig for the Penn study, eGenesis of Cambridge, Massaschetts, is aiming to do that with gene editing. Scientists at the company used Crispr to make a total of 69 genetic … Read more

Gene editing: Chinese scientists bring safer pig-to-human organ transplants one step closer to reality

[ A team led by Chinese researchers say they have succeeding in producing genetically modified pigs with cells that are more compatible with the human immune system, paving the way for safe and effective organ transplants from animals to humans. In a study published Monday in the Nature Biomedical Engineering journal, the researchers said they … Read more

The First Crispr Medicine Is Now Approved in the US

[ Casgevy uses the Nobel Prize–winning technology Crispr to modify patients’ cells so that they produce healthy hemoglobin instead. The Crispr system has two parts: a protein that cuts genetic material and a guide molecule that tells it where in the genome to make the cut. To do this, a patient’s stem cells are taken … Read more