BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

eGenesis strides toward safe pig organ transplants

August 10, 2017 9:38 PM UTC

In a study published today in Science, researchers from xenotransplantation company eGenesis Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) and several academic institutions used gene editing to eliminate pathogenic factors from pigs that may be transmittable to humans. The new study brings the company one step closer to creating a supply of pig organs that are safe for human transplantation.

eGenesis, co-founded by Harvard professor and CRISPR expert George Church in 2015, was formed to address the shortage of human organs for transplantation by developing pig organs as a safe alternative. Many pig organs are comparable to their human counterparts, but harbor immunological incompatibilities and carry the risk of transmitting porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) -- retroviruses encoded throughout the pig genome that could cause problems ranging from tumorigenesis to immune deficiency if transmitted to humans...