Source: AP News
At a research farm in the Blue Ridge mountains, gene-edited pigs are being raised in highly controlled conditions to explore the future of organ transplantation. These pigs, free from contaminants, provide organs for xenotransplantation – the process of transplanting animal organs into humans. The first transplants, including hearts and kidneys, have been attempted in terminally ill patients, yielding valuable data despite their eventual deaths.
The pigs are engineered to reduce immune rejection, involving complex gene edits and cloning processes. A new $75 million facility in Christiansburg, Virginia, further tightens biosecurity, aiming to produce organs for clinical trials by next year. United Therapeutics and its subsidiary, Revivicor, are at the forefront of this research, with ambitions to significantly alleviate the human organ shortage through large-scale production of pathogen-free pig organs.
Read the full story HERE: https://apnews.com/article/pig-organ-transplant-xenotransplant-revivicor-ad400e7f1d30c2722456eb92e641449f