Transplantation

First pig-to-human lung transplant functions for nine days

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:00:00 -0400

The frontiers of xenotransplantation have been further extended with a pig-to-human lung transplant, the first time an organ that is directly exposed to the external environment – with the associated risk of respiratory pathogens – has been transplanted. The genetically modified pig lung remained viable and functional for nine days, after it was transplanted into a 39-year-old man who was declared brain dead following a hemorrhagic stroke.

Eledon takes new ‘tac’ with tegoprubart in kidney transplant

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0400

Eledon Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s tegoprubart, an investigational anti-CD40 ligand antibody, was used as part of the immunosuppressive regimen after the first-ever transplant of a kidney from a genetically modified pig to a human. The tegoprubart procedure was done March 16 at Massachusetts General Hospital on a 62-year-old man with end-stage renal disease.

Synthetic checkpoint engagers could prevent transplant rejection

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have designed a group of synthetic molecules that could prevent the rejection of allogeneic cell transplants. Their strategy consisted of activating the immune checkpoints of different populations of immune cells from the cell surface, but avoiding the cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages that would destroy the transplanted cells.

United Therapeutics buying Miromatrix for up to $140M

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -0400

United Therapeutics Corp. signed an agreement to acquire Miromatrix Medical Inc. for up to $140 million in cash, buying its way into additional organic growth. The deal would add Miromatrix’s comprehensive portfolio of bio-engineered organs to United’s existing organ production platform.

Most-edited-ever donor genomes lead to 2-year survival in porcine-to-primate kidney transplants

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:00:00 -0400

Scientists at Egenesis Inc. have transplanted kidneys from genome-edited pigs into cynomolgus monkeys that remained functional for long periods after transplantation. The monkeys, whose own kidneys were removed during the surgery, survived for a median of 176 days after receiving one pig kidney. Maximal survival was just over 2 years. The data were published today in Nature. Egenesis CEO Mike Curtis told reporters that the study has achieved the longest survival to date “using clinically translatable immunosuppression … longer survival has been achieved using really aggressive immunosuppression that really isn’t clinically translatable.”

Most-edited-ever donor genomes lead to 2-year survival in porcine-to-primate kidney transplants

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:00:00 -0400

First humanized mesonephros kidneys developed in pig embryos after implantation

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Scientists at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health have developed a humanized kidney at the mesonephros stage in pig embryos up to day 28 of gestation. It is the first time that this has been achieved in chimeric xenotransplants.

Ex vivo autologous gene therapy risk leaves room for improvement

Mon, 22 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Gene therapy technology makes it possible to select diseased or mutated cells from a patient, modify them in the laboratory and reintroduce them to the body to treat different disorders. This is known as ex vivo autologous gene therapy. The difference with allogeneic cell techniques is whether the donor is oneself (autologous) or a compatible person (allogeneic), which would provide healthy cells that do not need genetic modification.

Chronic transplant rejection requires antigen and IL-15

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The limited state of current clinical transplantation science was recently the subject of an opinion piece from an individual that received her first heart transplant at just 25 years of age only to soon succumb at the age of 60 to one of the many risky outcomes expected for anyone taking standard requisite immunosuppression regimens used for any transplantation, in her case terminal cancer.

Stem cell base editing restores T cells in severe combined immunodeficiencies

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Base editing (BE), a technique that modifies a single nucleotide in living cells, has been successfully tested to resolve the CD3δ mutation in severe combined immunodeficiencies (SCIDs) and produce functional T cells. For now, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), completed the study on patient stem cells and artificial thymic organoids, shortening the way for future clinical trials.

Düsseldorf patient cured of HIV after stem cell transplant

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Fifteen years ago, at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), researchers announced that they had cured a patient – Timothy Ray Brown, initially known only as the Berlin Patient to preserve his privacy – of HIV through a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Now, as researchers are gathered in Seattle for CROI 2023, reports of another cured patient were published Feb. 20, 2023, in Nature Medicine. Ten years after receiving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and 4 years after stopping antiretroviral treatment (ART), a 53-year-old patient may have been cured of HIV infection.

Human brain organoids mature after transplantation into rats

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 09:00:00 -0400

Human brain organoids transplanted into rats could be used as an in vivo model for the study of neuropsychiatric diseases. Researchers at Stanford University managed to mature human organoid neurons in the somatosensory cortex of the animal's brain and incorporate them into its neural circuitry.The integration improved the morphological and physiological properties of the transplanted neurons. Compared to those of organoids in a Petri dish, human cells preserved their own identity, and they modified the rat's learned behavior through stimulation and reward experiments.

Human brain organoids mature after transplantation into rats

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 09:00:00 -0400