New pig breed for organ transplants

Freethink, a US-based website that focuses on advances in technology, has reported that scientists in Germany are developing a new pig breed that will be genetically modified to provide the ideal organs for human transplants.

While animal-to-human organ transplants have been performed for decades, they usually result in the death of the patient.

The researchers, led by Eckhard Wolf of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, said the new pig breed would be modified from the Auckland Island breed, and the first transplant trials should take place in 2025.

This research follows the first successful heart transplant from a pig to a human, which took place at the University of Maryland Medical Center in the US on 7 January. Despite the patient “doing well”, according to his doctors, the threats of infection and organ rejection remain high.

CLONING

Wolf told Reuters that they were using cloning to generate “the founder animals, from which future genetically identical generations would be bred”.

The team would proceed with five genetic modifications. By limiting the number of edits made to the pigs, Wolf said that his team should have an easier time documenting the effects of each edit and tracing any problems back to their source.

According to Wolf, they had chosen the Auckland Island breed for the project because its organs were naturally a better-size fit for humans.

The research is not without controversy, with many other scientists questioning the ethics and implications of such research.

For more information, email Janine Ryan at janiner@caxton.co.za.