CRISPR-Enabled Xenotransplants
December 8, 2015 | Terry Sharrer
A pig’s heart is about the same size as a human’s, but a xenotransplant has not been possible because the porcine genome has native retroviruses which cause tissue rejection in people. However, George Church’s lab at the Harvard/MIT Wyss Institute has used CRISPR-Cas 9 gene editing to remove 62 sequences of those retrovirus genes—the greatest number of gene edits done simultaneously thus far. This is at least one step closer to an agricultural source of transspecies hearts. MORE
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